New Project
Happy New Year!
One of my resolutions for this year is to spend more time working on the various projects that I have on my internal ‘to-do’ list. One of these projects is to put a new custom skin on the Sabre.
Time to get de…err…constructive! No better place to start than with cutting the rear fender.
When complete, this project will include modified front and rear fenders, rolled gas tank seams and a custom graphics job. I have used eBay to purchased used Sabre parts to complete the project with minimal down time. I was able to purchase a tank, both fenders and side covers for just over $500.
The tank will be sent to either Wild Card Customs or Badd Axe Customs to have the seams rolled. I will be contacting them both for pricing and scheduling. Since both of these places do custom paint too I’ll need to cut and prep the fenders first so they can be sent with the tank and everything can be painted at once.
I like the curves of the stock fender, I would just like to expose more of the big fat Avon Venom from the back. To duplicate the stock curve, I took a piece of paper and used a Sharpie to trace out the curve at the bottom of the fender. I then cut out the curve traced onto the paper and used that as a template to figure out where the cut line on the fender would be. What ended up looking best to me was a cut that would go between the tail-light assembly and license plate assembly. This will require a sidemount license plate bracket and relocation of the rear blinkers – funny how projects spawn other projects.
Once I had the cut lines marked, I fired up my trusty air compressor, put a new zip disk on my cutting wheel and went to work. I was originally going to try and roll the edges so I made my first cut about 1/2 inch below the cut line. While making the cut, I realized that one of the reinforcement ribs, inside the fender, crossed my cut line, making it almost impossible to roll the edge once the cut was complete. So I just made a second cut, this time following the line marked on the fender. After the cut was made, I used an angle grinder to clean up the cut.
Next weekend I’ll start sanding it down and getting it ready for paint.