Fairing stays - preventing future damage

[Carbon_One]

We all know how fragile the end of the windshield tabs are so I decided to beef up mine before there was any damage done. What I did was used a small flat head screw and counter sunk drilled the hole already near the ends of the metal bar. That allowed the screw to sit below the rubber strip that the windshield is sandwiched between it and the outer fairing. Next I spot welded a small piece of 16 guage steel and an 1/8" welding rod together. Cut the rod to the right length and welded another tab to the other end. I mounted the lower tab to the bottom speaker mount. You'll need to bend the rod for the proper angles but that's easily enough done. The ends of the windshiled mounts are rock solid now.

Another additional support I did was to add some brass flat stock to the mounting screws for the outside fairing. I cut the two outer pieces 1 1/2" long and the two inner ones 2" long , then drilled a 13/16" hole for the screws 1/4" from the top on center. The two inner pieces will need a slight bend to conform to the curve. Adding these pieces will spread the load over a larger area thus saving broken tabs under the washers.

I've found that adding the brass pads will also help prevent the windshield from loosening as you can tighten the screws a bit more rather than squishing the plastic tabs at the screw heads.

[Eck]

Excellent repair Larry..!!!

Those tabs break very easy.

Its a good thing you and I dont live close to gether...we could be fairly dangerous coming up with ideas to fix things..

[Carbon_One]

Excellent repair Larry..!!!

 

Those tabs break very easy.

 

Its a good thing you and I dont live close to gether...we could be fairly dangerous coming up with ideas to fix things..

 

:rotf:Well this isn't any new idea as it's been done before in various ways. But I think this is about the simplest method and due to cross bracing is very strong. One other thing worth mentioning is I did use just slightly longer screws on the two ends to accommodate the thicker material.

Larry

[Eck]

:rotf:

Well this isn't any new idea as it's been done before in various ways. But I think this is about the simplest method and due to cross bracing is very strong.

 

Yep, I too have seen other repairs for these tabs but I like yours.. Looks very solid and secure.

 

 

One other thing worth mentioning is I did use just slightly longer screws on the two ends to accommodate the thicker material.

I noticed that rigth away.. There was no way the original screw length would have grabbed going through the sandwiched material thickness.

 

Good job my friend..!!

[XV1100SE]

Something else to spend money on if Larry posts in the classifieds !

[djh3]

I remember beefing mine up but I forget how I did it now. Something I saw here for sure. On the windshied scres I took fender washers and a pair of snips and trimmed them so they had more surface area on the windshield. I remember something about some sort of light weight metal I made a bracket out of.