[Thomas]

Hi there. I'm new to posting on the forum, though I have been reading post here and checking out the bikes for a couple of years now.
I have a 1981 Honda GL500. The bike was abandoned at a apartment complex here in North Carolina when the renter moved away. It sat for a long time before the property managers wanted it removed. A friend picked it up and decided to try and get it running rather than haul it to the junk yard. He gave up and called me. After getting the Title to the bike I picked up where he left off. The bike wanted to run. It responded well to me tinkering around and soon was purring like a kitten. The bike already had the fairings, bags, and a few other parts removed. Either these were lost, stolen, or sold, but not with the bike. I pieced it together and rode it a little bit, then kind of lost interest for a while. Then I started cutting, and welding. Then I made a seat. Next I painted it and rode it some. Then I put fenders back on because I was tired of water to the face and having my back and butt wet every time there was just the tiniest amount of wTer on the road. Next I decided I wanted a fairing. "Why not build one?" I thought. Many hours later I realized I got to come up with a way to mount this thing. And on and on. It's been a lot of fun to take something that someone else gave up on and give it a new lease on life. Sure it's not pretty, but it has been an absolute blast just to get it this far.
Like most of my projects, it's a work in progress and there is still a list of things to complete. Carbs need cleaning, there a new rear tire in the imeadate future, and I'm still looking at doing a whole fiberglass bagger style rear end sometime down the road, but each step I'm kind of greeted by a motorcycle that seems to be enjoying its second chance.

 

[handcoded]

I like what you have done with it. Looks pretty cool to me. I'd be interested to find out more about how you made the fairing.

 

[Thomas]

I like what you have done with it. Looks pretty cool to me. I'd be interested to find out more about how you made the fairing.

Thanks, I really appreciate that.
The fairing was pretty easy. I started out with PEX pipe to get the rounded parts into the general shape that I wanted and then covered the front of the bike and PEX with blue painters tape. That gave me a "buck" to lay my fiberglass on. After a few layers of fiberglass and resin, I let it setup for about 24 hours. I then pulled everything off the bike and removed the blue tape and PEX pipe from the underside of my part. I then used felt material soaked in the resin to build up the thickness of my fairing. I then spent sometime with Bondo body filler smoothing out the outside of the piece. I made it quite large to allow me to trim to fit the shape of the bike.
I will post the pics I have of the build. If you spend some time really shaping things out during the taping part you won't have to work so hard on the body filler part. This was my first attempt at building something like this, so I watched lots of vids on making parts from fiberglass on YouTube. Very helpful.
Everyone else is more than welcome to add their expertise on the subject and photos or links to vids on the subject.

 

[RollTide_ATX]

I really dig this. Has a Street Glide feel to it. Welcome officially to the forum.

 

[Thomas]

I really dig this. Has a Street Glide feel to it. Welcome officially to the forum.

Thank you.

 

[22336]

AWESOME work. It looks very symmetrical. How is the "fitment" (Is it a word?) for the gauges to the fairing INSIDE of the fairing?

Seems like a CX500 with the mini-fairing would have meshed up nicely with the inside of your custom fairing....

 

[Thomas]

[URL=http://s30.photobucket.com/user/Thomas_Everett_Hudson/media/Mobile%20Uploads/c59e9d46-f4f1-4991-a92b-9327f92d8b0d_zpsdf8821f2.jpg.html][/URL]

Eh.. It's not too far off and fits around everything pretty good. It suits my purpose. I just wanted something to kick the air up and this does ok. I would have installed a Vetter or even another type of fairing for a Sportster or something, but I couldn't find what I wanted and so I said "What the hell, it can only be so hard." So I made my own.

 

[genesound]

Quite ingenious, impressive! I really like this kind of thing.

 

[Thomas]

Ok so I deciced to drop the hbox, and do a little custom exhaust. I picked up a set of Murray's pipes, and then acquired a set of R1 cans from Craigslist. Broke a cheap exhaust pipe expander, and cut my leg, got pissed, threw some stuff, went and watched tv. Worked all day today, then Had Salazar Muffler in Greensboro expand the ends of the pipes so I could get the mufflers mounted up. Salazar, great folks, expanded the pipes, for $5, paid him $10, and they habla español if you need. The mufflers work good and look pretty cool, but they are so quiet. It's weird, the speed comes on quickly, but it doesn't sound right. They might not be on there very long, we'll see.
Here's some pics.

Sorry the last few are really dark, I'll get better ones when I get in tomorrow.

 

[ramprat06]

Pretty creative Thomas. Not really in my wheelhouse but can't fault your craftiness and work. As an aside, the "label" on the front fender plays havoc with my visual perception. The optical illusion is that your front wheel is horridly out of line.

*edit to add, take care of that leg, that looks nasty.

Joel in the Couve

 

[Thomas]

LOL I free handed a stencil and purposely set it off kilter. The whole thing is a little off kilter, as if put together in a junk yard after the apocalypse. I tried to make it pretty and that didn't work. I then went to a Frankenstein kind of look, but didn't like it either. So somewhere in the middle is where I settled.

 

[maggotier]

a rescued GL is a good thing. working with fiberglass can be a very creative process. you did a good job with the mold and i like the use of the resin soaked liner to give it rigidity and a smoother finish.

 

[Thomas]

Thank you.

 

[Rambler]

Nice job on that fairing. I like the grenade!

 

[Joebuck]

Fabulous fiberglass fabrication love that assorted creative built not bought look you got going :icon_salut:

 

[Thomas]

You're all too kind. I really appreciate it.

 

[Thomas]

New exhaust wrapped and installed.

 

[Thomas]

 

[Thomas]

In the raw exhaust.

 

[hurley]

I love the seat, canvas pannier, and taillight. I'm also using the same master cylinder; how has yours held up? And how did you make the seat? Cut the back off the stock seat? Anyways, it looks great.