I had a similar problem when I was preparing to ship my motorcycle back to Auckland. It was completely stripped and in boxes. They told me if I brought it into the country in pieces I'd never be able to finish rebuilding it and register it as a bike, and would only be able to use the parts to fix other bikes. So I threw it together loosely so it was complete and brought it in. Anyway now I'm taking it back overseas again, having never registered it here because they wanted me to drill the frame to rivet a new NZTA Vin number plate onto it because the factory chassis number isn't good enough any more. I'm not drilling the frame, so the country loses another very rare and valuable piece of machinery.