Another transformation....

Ever since I finished Jen's Shadow 1100 I wanted to extend the bags and rear fender on mine, as the gap bugged the crap out of me... But the way the fender and bags taper in towards the center I wasn't sure how I was gonna be able to extend the bags and fender and make it look right....Then this setup popped up for sale and I jumped on it...Got some cool ideas in my head for rear lighting if I can make it work...Got some testing to do first as I'm wanting to do a color change also...

Cool thing is there's no rush on this...I bought a '15 GL1800 F6B summer of last year, so I have a nice bike to ride if I don't get this wrapped up by springtime...

And first surprise....

Drilled the holes out to mount the fender yesterday, today went to fit the inner structure and it wouldn't fit...Did some sanding inside the fender to get that to fit right and realized I drilled the holes slightly off...No biggie, I can fill em in and start over...Sanded the primer down and found that the holes had already been drilled previously (opposite of what I was told when I bought this stuff) and filled back in with body filler....🤦‍♂️

So out came the Dremel, ground out all the body filler and now filling the holes in with fiberglass...Let this cure and next weekend try drilling the holes in the correct locations next time...🙄

In retrospect, I'm glad I drilled them wring and I found the bondo now so I can fix it before it became a bigger issue and started chipping out....

More progress....

Cut some pieces of steel to reinforce the inside of the fender a couple weeks ago, the correct dispenser gun for the 3M panel bond arrived Friday, so got them glued in place and they had to sit 24 hrs to cure...Finally this morning I could continue moving forward on this...

Had to clearance the right bag a little bit for the exhaust, and clearance the left bag a BUNCH!!...As in "cut damn near the entire floor out of the left bag"....Reason being these were made to fit a VTX with the stock pipes, which are both on the right side of the bike..So the left bag the floor is to the bottom of the bag that you can see...The right side the floor is about 4-5" higher...As far as I know, nobody else with this bag/fender setup has the Roadhouse Doolies also, so I'm venturing into virgin territory here...I'll lay out some fiberglass and make a flat sheet I can cut to the shape I need and 'glass it in place and make a new floor for the left bag,and while I'm at it, cut the floor out of the right one and lower it 4"....

Still a ton to do, but getting them on the bike was a big step today...😎

More pics...

More pics......

Did fried turkey this year for Christmas instead of ham, so while the bird was cooking in the fryer I started cutting some cardboard...First version was a bit too big, so I cut an inch off the top and recut the ends...

This a very rough mockup....Ends will be out further and blended into the bags, and I'll build a license plate mount and of course blend that in as well...I'm sure this part will evolve as I go....Got the idea from my '79 Corvette, and trying to come up with a way to make the license plate not look like an afterthought....😎

Pics from first attempt....

And after cutting an inch off.....

Got home to find a package from Dennis Kirk waiting for me...🙂

Flange on the new tips is a bit shorter than the Roadhouse tips, so I'll have to drill a new hole in the mufflers closer to the edge...But I put one in place and held it there with some painters tape and stepped back to take a look see....😬🤘🏼😎🤘🏼

No interference with the saddlebag, and won't be blasting exhaust at the bags either...There's like 9 holes in the tips so they can be installed at a variety of angles...Tried rotated about 45* down and out, but that didn't look as good as this does...Wasn't bad, this is just better....This will definitely work, which is awesome considering what these things cost!!!...

Laid out some flat fiberglass yesterday and figured out what all I needed to get to put the new exhaust tips on...This morning swung by ACE Hardware for some stainless steel bolts, went back home and got busy...Turndown tips permanently installed, then cut out a piece of the flat fiberglass to make a new floor for the left saddlebag...Sanded the edges down until it fit inside the bag, then put some pieces of tape on to hold it while I layed some sections of fiberglass and resin in place similar to tack welds on steel....Tomorrow morning I'll pull the tape off, then add fiberglass and resin inside the bag to permanently attach the floor in place....Once all that cures I can trim the tire side of the bag up to the new floor level and add fiberglass and resin to the opposite side to strengthen the outside edge....Lots of fiberglass work in areas that nobody will ever see right now....😎

More pics.....

'Glassed the floor in the left bag this morning....

Then got started on a new piece for the fairing.....

After waking up, looking at the pics again, and thinking about it in the semi this morning, I'm going to change the shape a bit....But it's purely cosmetic...
My Jeep Gladiator has a non-functional hood scoop, as does Jen's Toyota Tacoma....

Cut out the rest of the original floor in left bag yesterday after work, then cut a piece to fit the void I couldn't access before and 'glassed it partially in place...

This morning I finished 'glassing in the piece I added yesterday, then got busy cutting the floor out of the right saddlebag (lowering the floor on that one), had lots of extra stuff hiding in there to remove...Got that done and added two layers of fiberglass to the entire bottom of the left saddlebag...Velcro pad on my sander finally gave up, ordered a pair of new ones yesterday, they'll be here tomorrow so I'm kinda at a standstill on the right saddlebag until those arrive...

Gaining 4-1/4" in the right bag....

Also added 3 more layers in the left bag to strengthen the floor...