GS1100E Cafe fairing installation

[posplayr]

David,
a picture is worth a thousand words . I went through the photo gallery and I see you do some really nice work. Great detail. I need to mount a fairing on my GSXR, I might have to borrow an idea of 2 .

One question on the rivets as opposed to welding, what is the story there?
Jim

[wacky941]

One question on the rivets as opposed to welding, what is the story there?

I don't weld so finding someone to do it can get interesting especially welding aluminum, I had everything available to me to rivet the pieces together so I went with it, I think they turned out nice.

I'll try to find some more of the aluminum angle and post the dimensions when I get back home in a couple weeks.

David

[posplayr]

David,
I recently needed some welding done as well. Went through the phone book but that did not work. Finally found a local motorcycle shop and asked there and they steered me to a guy real close by that has a full shop, does excellent work and will work on the smallest piece as long as he gets his $75 per hour.
I'll take him something that he charges maybe $20 to weld; he welded a Stainless harness that was starting to rip for only $8. Anyway you might find someone local to you that way.
I agree the setup looks very sturdy and much better than the Maier setup I have.
Jim

[gmansyz]

Ooooops?

Okay, was contacted by "DUDE" and the phone was disconnected but still in business. Do I have something on my face now? Was also considering the 8" GS1000S fairing too but may need to wait.
Sorry for the blunder.
G

[wacky941]

http://www.airtech-streamlining.com/...ngsquarter.htm

is it easily doable to open the whole to 8" from 7"

Because of the contour lines on the fairing (Wes Cooley replica) I don't think it would be possible, I may be mistaken.

You should contact posplayr, he has a Maier fairing that was cut to fit the 8 inch headlight from one that was made for a 7 inch headlight.

David

[GS1100ez]

Because of the contour lines on the fairing (Wes Cooley replica) I don't think it would be possible, I may be mistaken.

You should contact posplayr, he has a Maier fairing that was cut to fit the 8 inch headlight from one that was made for a 7 inch headlight.

David

thank you for the heads up will do

[smagnusen]

Thanks for the thread. I'll be fabbing some brackets for my "Dude"-made cooley fairing as soon as I'm finished painting it, which leads me to my quick, non-hijacking question, can I leave the inside black mat? -should it be painted?

[wacky941]

Thanks for the thread. I'll be fabbing some brackets for my "Dude"-made cooley fairing as soon as I'm finished painting it, which leads me to my quick, non-hijacking question, can I leave the inside black mat? -should it be painted?

Me personally, I think it looks much better with the inside black because it blends in with the guage console and it's not distracting.
Something else to think about, if it's painted a light color or painted any gloss color it has the potential to reflect when the sun hits it at the right angle, or wrong angle, depending how you view it.
What color are you going to paint it? I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep with the original color or just totally change the paint scheme.

[hp1000s]

I'm going to do the inside of my "S" fairing in wrinkle-black this winter. The existing white finish does reflect, and is distracting at nite.

[wacky941]

Let me know how it comes out, I might decide to paint the inside of mine in wrinkle black too, that ought to look good.

David

[Bert Patterson]

Because of the contour lines on the fairing (Wes Cooley replica) I don't think it would be possible, I may be mistaken.

I actually don't know who made my WC fairing, because I got it in the salvage barn of a local speed shop. It was hanging on the wall for years, never installed. I gave him $20 then bought the windscreen from Gustaffsen. The fairing was made for a 7" light, but the "tunnel" for the light tapers to 7". I just cut an inch or so off the inside to make it fit an 8" headlight. It mounts slightly (and inch) further back, but I think that actually looks better. (my hardware and paint look like sh!t, but the shapes look good....and it works incredibly well)

[sessionman212]

Gs 1100 Fairing

Nice looking GS Im up in Canada and I just received a Wes Cooley fairing from National Fiberglass Dude fabricated it for me right away and shipped it up a great fellow to deal with Im going to install mine right away as my bike is back from the shop ( 82 GS 1100 EZ) If you have time could you post some pictures of the front face as im not sure of depth for headlight I have some fairing mounts from a GS 1150 im going to try to mod THX (for anybody interested Dude makes these in 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 headlight openings for GS 1100,s and GS 1000,s)

[wacky941]

Nice looking GS Im up in Canada and I just received a Wes Cooley fairing from National Fiberglass Dude fabricated it for me right away and shipped it up a great fellow to deal with Im going to install mine right away as my bike is back from the shop ( 82 GS 1100 EZ) If you have time could you post some pictures of the front face as im not sure of depth for headlight I have some fairing mounts from a GS 1150 im going to try to mod THX (for anybody interested Dude makes these in 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 headlight openings for GS 1100,s and GS 1000,s)

I bought mine from Dude and in my opinion it is very high quality stuff, I love the way it turned out.

It's funny you asked about the depth for the headlight, I had the exact same question and unfortunately I never received an answer so I came up with an idea of how to do it and this is what I decided on


I cut a spacer out of sheet aluminum, off the top of my head I think I used 1/8" thick, this is also the one thing that I would change, instead of making this spacer the thickness I did I would make it 1/4" instead. It seems like 1/8" is a bit of spacing but in reality it's not that much when you consider that you will still need room for adjustment of the headlight.

Here is a link to my photo albums in it I've got one labeled Fairing Installation, it's got all kinds of pictures that you might find helpful. http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/album.php?u=14086

As for the spacer I measured the actual diameter of the headlight bulb itself and then made a border around it like 1/2" then cut it out which you can see above.

I ordered the actual Wes Cooley brackets that are still available from any of the parts distributors that fit the '79-'80 GS1000S. What I noticed was that the lower brackets had all the correct angles but they dropped down too far so I had to figure out a way to shorten them, the ones in the photo above are the ones I made, they're pretty much exactly like the originals except shorter. The top brackets are the ones that I ordered but of course the yaw angle was wrong so I cut the weld, repositioned the cross bracket and clamped with a pair of vise grips then had them welded in place.

The windscreen is another story.

These are the original brackets:


These are the new brackets after the lowers were remanufactured and uppers were reworked:


Original lower tracing to make shorter, I placed a thick book on the floor and used a blank piece of printer paper, both sides were traced individually:


New aluminum angle brackets to be made into lowers aligned on my pattern:


Old and new together:


Upper with mount pad removed:


This is how I clamped it for the correct angle for welding:


Fit check before painting:


The end result, there was a lot more that got it to this point and changes that were made to the upper mount brackets:


I know this is quite a bit of an explanation but I have a habit of getting wordy sometimes, besides I love pictures.

By the way post a picture of your bike so we know what you're working with.

[steve murdoch]

Beautiful!
Thanks for the in-depth pics and instructions, Wacky.

[Coolshaft]

I made the bottom brackets out off 1.2mm S/S scrapp bit and just bend them up after cutting them out from a cardboard patern.
Also used the double nut block originally used to clamp the fork legs.
You can easily spot weld them to the Stainless Steel bracket if so desired.
I used balustrade brackets as they were already correctly bend and size.
Modified them to suit.

On a Shaft drive, what this is, the fairing does fit snug with the front light.

Hopefully this helps a bit , otherwise please do remove!