Fender Customizing

[richardhaggarty]

I have a 1985 GS 700 and I want to change the fenders. The front fender looks like a large blob of plastic; I want to lower it down on the tire and trim it down a little. Make it look a little leaner, a little bit meaner.

Has anyone worked with cutting these plastics before?

The rear fender is tucked up in the subframe, under the seat. I want to get rid of that and put a real fender down tight on the wheel. Like this Ducati Monster.


Has any one seen this? Any suggestions for a fender that might fit?

[Anonymous]

fender mods

Hello
yes u can modify the stock fender by cutting it iit is a polypropoline fender and can b cut with a fine toothed jigsaw blade and tehn finish it with a fine file and finnally with some sandpaper to get ur desired shape.
or u can order a new aftermarket front and rear fender from Denisdirk.com. they r inexpensive and have a 24 hr 1-800 technical line to assist u with any ? the u may have.
e - mail me if u have any further ?
Good luck Archie

[robinjo]

I shortened the front fender on my 750 but is was chromed metal :roll: pretty useless in the rain after that really but it looked cool! 8) Unless you raise or change the rear subframe there is a big chance your hugger fender will limit suspension travel in the back. Are you changing wheels too?

[QuaiChangKane]

Richard,


Your rear fender can be cut (the plastics), but there is a steel sub-fender which holds it in place. This sub-fender is also what braces your license plate when you attatch it to the rear fender, and it is the ONLY thing that supports your tail light.

You can trim the plastic fender, and then trim the steel sub-fender, leaving only the flat portion which has the threaded holes to support your brake light (you'll honestly need to remove your tail to see what I'm talking about). The problem with this is that once you trim the sub-fender, it will split over time due to vibration from the tail light. You will need to cut the entire end off this sub-fender and fabricate your own tail light and license plate supports. Cutting the sub-fender will also remove your rear signal light mounts, so you'll have to go with some type of flush-mount signals on your tail...

I found this out the hard way.... I used aluminum angle-iron and aluminum flat stock I bought at the local hardware store. Took some measurements, bent it into shape on the vice, drilled some holes and put it all back together. About 45 minutes worth of work for making the new brackets - not bad. For the plastic tail, scribe a line where you want to trim it, and use a dremel to cut the excess plastic off. Remember to leave about 1/8" extra plastic at your scribe line so you don't get carried away with the dremel. When you've finished with the dremel, use a palm-sander to sand the excess plastic off until you're down to your scribe line. Then clean it up with 400- followed by 1000-grit wet/dry paper (dry, of course, using the palm sander). What you'll end up with is a smooth, almost factory finish. PM me for more photos....



Your front fender is a different story. You've got a factory U-shaped fork brace underneath your front fender. If you trim the fender to lower it, you'd also have to trim the fork brace or get rid of it and try to find a different one. I most definitely would not run this bike without a fork brace with those skinny 37mm fork tubes.

Telefix above-fender fork braces come up for sale on ebay pretty often. Do yourself a favor and buy a generic front sport fender from www.airtech-streamlining.com or Lockhart Philips. Use that one to trim down to see if you like it. If so, swap them out and look for an aftermarket fork brace. If not, then you didn't ruin your original fender and fork brace.....


Lastly - I don't know of anybody that makes a hugger for such a narrow tire. You might possibly look for one listed for a GS500. Definitely post up some photos of these mods if you get 'em done....




-Q!