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Fitted the last pieces of the bodywork to my 150dl rebuild this afternoon for the purpose of taking photographs for the DVLA registering process and unfortunately a major problem was spotted.
The rim of the Rimini supplied Casa Lambretta headlight unit just would not fit into the std. matched italian headset.
About 2mm too narrow in width and 2mm too narrow in height.
I can fully understand cheap indian remakes being out of tolerance but Rimin/Casa?!
wasnt cheap either.
Whats the best way of ensuring a good fit?
buy several rims and trial and error?
Im a bit wary of taking a dremel to the brightly polished rim, neither do i want to dremel the newly painted headset.
Any advice welcomed.
Cheers

The world of Lambretta.. where nothing fits without fettling! Is the 2mm difference the thickness of the paint or powder coat?

Saying that I have had poorly fitting Casa parts before - a rear light lens for a Eibar (Carello) rear light where the screw holes weren't in the right place and cracked the plastic.

Ben.

Never found a remade gp headlight rim that fits. They are too tight and usually need dremelling in the inner edge. Scooter restorations always had a stock of original used ones and presume still will have. I always use these and have them rechromed. Fit perfectly

Strangely I've found apart from the original rim the best fitting GP light rims are the cheap pressed tin far eastern ones as they have more flex and movement than the cast ones

I think relieving the paint from the headset wont help much.
Think I will return the rim to Rimini and try and get my money back.
I will try SR for an alternative as suggested.
Going to spray the rim black so it doesnt matter if the chrome plating is of poor quality, so an indian fleabay version might work!

Cheers

Citydaz

Bought a SIL rim from SR and have started to fettle it.
Just by rubbing with sandpaper the fit has improved, will finish the job proper with the dremel at the week-end, then paint it black gloss.
Once I have this to size I will attempt the Casa rim.
Then I will be torn between fitting the black rim or the chrome rim!

Cheers
Citydaz

citydaz wrote:Bought a SIL rim from SR and have started to fettle it.
Just by rubbing with sandpaper the fit has improved, will finish the job proper with the dremel at the week-end, then paint it black gloss.
Once I have this to size I will attempt the Casa rim.
Then I will be torn between fitting the black rim or the chrome rim!

Cheers
Citydaz

CASA the same , fitted one on my 71 GP a few yrs ago & had to be dremmelled

I was attempting to source a decent rim for my TV
I splashed out on a NOS one - rubbish fit, returned to the seller
Casa - Worse, again returned
The Scootopia rim was the best out the three, but still need a lot of fettling with a dremmel.

About the NOS poor fitting rim..
I did try the perfectly fitting headlamp rim from my SX, and the fit was perfect on the TV!

nsaints wrote:I was attempting to source a decent rim for my TV
I splashed out on a NOS one - rubbish fit, returned to the seller
Casa - Worse, again returned
The Scootopia rim was the best out the three, but still need a lot of fettling with a dremmel.

About the NOS poor fitting rim..
I did try the headlamp rim from my SX, and the fit was perfect!

Considering how difficult it can be to match headset tops and bottoms it comes as no great surprise

I don't think any remade ones fit, I got one from Scootopia and it looks really nice but that too didn't fit. Italian headset etc, fortunately my current GP isn't a full resto and just tarted up, so I used the slightly tarnished scabby original and just polish it often.

I've had originals re chromed SX/GP type in the past and its been hit and miss, some come out great but some come out with blow holes in due to the crappiness of the original metal they used to make em.

I also sprayed one black on my first ever GP 30 years ago for similar reason and everywhere I went everyone asked why was it black and was it Indian! ha ha

Best fitting GP ones I have had, have been from Quality chrome in Hull.

Dremelled the SIL rim this afternoon. Fits perfect!
The only downside is that on one side the edge is razor sharp. I will paint this gloss black and see how it turns out.
I will also attempt to dremmel the Casa rim, now that i know what im doing.