Hi all,

I've been searching the forums and can't seem to find what I'm looking for. Has anyone taking the factory rear fender and fender struts and shortened them. Someone told me you can cut down your fender for that old school bobber look. Pics or how to... Anyone anyone? Bueller?

 

Check out my rear? If that's what you mean I could post up some instructions

https://www.hdforums.com/g/album/783547

Other photos in my album

 

That's exactly it my friend! I love it! If you can LMK how you did that so I'm not totally scared when I do it, I'd appreciate it. LOL looks like major surgery with a die grinder

 

Chopping the rear .,... that un-heard of.



Also on the 48

 

Yeah ramhunter9 and robbie13 were the bikes i used for inspiration .. although you guys in the states probably get better weather than me here in the UK

My mates tell me my bike is styled for California not England ... I get a back wet more often than not but i really think it looks killer!

Anyway I'll post some brief photos and steps ... if i dont give enough detail just ask me..

 

Well I didnt start out wanting to chop the rear myself ... i was going to get somebody with more ***** to do it .. i just stripped the back of my bike down to relocate the rear number plate ... but as you can see from this rather blurry photo .. once apart the rear struts were just begging to be chopped

 

As you can see .. I chopped just before the the rear fender mount hole .. the plan was to fix the signal/brake lights through these holes




Then it was just a case of shaping these, primer paint followed by black gloss ...

 

Then i just dropped the fender onto the back wheel and measured up where i wanted to chop it

I pretty much chopped it in half and used the rear part of the fender (with the good edge) as the half i put on the bike .. this gives a nice finish

This step was pretty much hit and miss .. i dont have a lot of tools for this job so I was marking with a pencil and cutting or drilling




At the point the fender was looking a little beat up .. but I just used a rattle can spray to tidy it up before putting it in place

Couple of things to note (thanks Robbie13 for this advice)

Leave the fender long enough to bolt it back to the frame behind the wheel .. there is a small bolt hole on his and my bike which is just big enough for a nut and bolt .. to give the fender the stablity to fit the seat to. I didn't do this initially and ending up taking it apart again a few weeks later after speaking to Robbie

Also not make sure you cut the length so that the rear hole in the top of your fender (which i used to use for my fender bib) can be used to secure the seat

 

I picked up a couple of short bolts that would fit into my rear lights (i ditched the stalks and made sure the lights fitted snug against the struts)

I used these bolts to hold the fender in place while i marked out the final cuts to shape the fender

The fender here does look a bit high off the wheel but once the holding bolt at the rear of the wheel is in place it drops it closer to the tire

 

After that it was just a case of shortening my wiring and fixing it all up under the seat (sorry stopped taking photos at this point!)

Then I just used the short bolts to fix my rear lights back to the strut

and eventually ended up with this ...



(free daughter with every rear end chop!!)