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Ok..... for a while now I have been trying to get a hold of some ideas to chop the fender and not have to pay to get an under tail. Liveaverage did a great job on his elimination as well as his L.E.D install and you can also view his work on his site. But for simplicity I have decided to post up a D.I.Y on our forum on the job I did.



Tools I used.

Dremel with cut off wheel and sand drum.
Allen wrenches
8mm socket
10mm socket
Small Punch
Needle nose pliers
Phillips Driver and Flat head

The first part covers rear plastic (painted plastic) removal. Even if your not replacing the tail light. I still advise removing the rear plastic to avoid the chance of scaring the paint during the chop.


To start remove seat. Then remove the two screws that hold the lock latch for the seat. You want to remove this latch so you can take the rear plastic completely off when its ready to. Go ahead and remove your tool bag if you already haven't as well.



Next go to the rear handle and remove the small plastic tabs covering the allen heads towards the seat with needle nose pliers. Then remove the larger chrome allen bolts and take the handle off and set everything aside.



Now we are ready to remove the plastic snaps on the underside and remove the smaller chrome allen heads that combine the rear plastics to the side covers. To remove the plastic snaps take a punch or other suitable tool and push the small circle inward till you hear a snap. At this point you should be able to remove the snap with you finger... might need to help a bit with a small flat head.

Plastic Snaps x4


Plastic snap out


Small chrome allen one on each side


Go ahead and begin to remove the rear plastic being careful not to scratch it with the latch hanging over, and unplug the rear light big plug... and take the rear plastic off and set it aside to do the tail install later. *Note * that under in front where the rear plastic and the under fender connect there is a tab... push the fender plastic( the one you took the snaps out of) inward to remove the rear plastic. More to come!

Now take off the turn signals using a 8mm socket. Unplug the signals...*noting which color plug is for which side*. Undo the zip tie on the metal bar and feed the signal cables down and out. Set them aside.




Time to remove the License plate light and the License plate.

First unplug the small white plug. Then remove the two 10mm sockets under the fender. Feed the small white plug down and out and remove the light housing. Now take the plate bracket off, plate and all...we will be using it later..





Ready to cut get out your dremel or other suitable tool.

Onespeed,
Do you have your bike all taken apart? You need to have your bird on the flight deck for tommorow!!!! lol Operation South Pairie.

As you can see here I chose to leave the sides a bit longer than most because i didn't want to see or have to cut the boxy looking plastic underneath.

Boxy plastic





When starting the chop take the turn signal ears off first cutting along the line you see here then cut down to remove the ears. Then cut the back fender off a few inches above the plate bracket holes. Looking straight at the back I rounded my cuts down and in. When you get to this point you need to take the plate bracket and center it on the part where the License plate light housing came off and mark the spots where you will cut grooves to slide the plate bracket up into. It will look like this.....






Notice the two holes in the second picture..... you want to put the bracket up in there so the angle on the bracket lines up to make the plate straight up and down. This also should line you up with the plastic you will drill into by holding the bracket in place as a template. You can see how it lines up in the following picture.



As you can see the bracket is slid up..... and the bracket is angled up. Go to the hard ware store and pick up some 1 1/2 length stainless bolts that approx same size diameter as the bracket holes. Get four washers and two nylock nuts. Tighten it up, put your plate on. Now you can mount smaller turn signals to the tabs or your ready for the tail light install.

She is ready for launch!

Tail install!

Go find the rear plastic you took off earlier. Remove the two 8mm screws. Slide the light out and replace with the new one. Reinsert screws. Have someone help you hold the rear plastic while you reconnect the tail light. Then grab yourself some quick splicers from the auto-parts store. I got 18-20 guage ones. Locate in your diag which wire off the tail light runs which side turn indicator. In my case I had a blue and yellow wire. (standing behind bike) the left signal was yellow and I spliced into the gray plug for left signal. Then the blue for right, spliced into black plug. The wire you are after to splice into is the wire on both plugs without the solid white stripe. Use the zip tie to clean up the loose wires. Feed the rear plastic over the anitfreeze over-flow bottle first, then the other side. make sure those (tabs) up front are in ...... then re install the handle, snaps, allen bolts, and then the latch. Should look like this.....



More or less Enjoy!

I did a fender chop here are some pics of the finished product.

additional pics of fender chop

Excellent write up. Very de-tailed

I like the clean look too.

Thanks for noticing!

thanks for the info here, I did mine with a little more modification and here's end result:

L-brackets and walmart led lights plus a $2 reflector to make it all street legal

Jasonchen,

Nice and clean fender chop. I want to do the same thing without replacing the OEM tailight and blinkers . Where did you attach the blinkers? It would be nice if you could post a close up picture of it.

Thanks!

after you remove the shovel (fender) the little trunk box makes the perfect space to mount the turn signals. make sure you use lock washers on both sides to insure a secure fit without worrying the vibration shaking the signals loose. I'll see if I can take some pictures before I goto bed....

here you go


the wires goes into the little holes where they suppose to go and into the little plastic trunk box to meet their connectors. after you secure the turn signals the rubber part would cover the holes up almost making them waterproof.

if you don't want to do the rear reflector you really just need one "T" plate and one "L" bracket and two bolts and nuts and washers to do this mod. I had some flat black rattle can paint in hand so I also painted everything black. also, after you removed the side reflectors you'll need to bend the oem bracket to make room for the signals. hope this helps

Jasonchen, thanks for posting a pic and 'how to' instructions. I now have a project to work on.