The International CBX Owners Association

I find it annoying when I paint my bikes and then invariably they get scratched at some point. Every time I climb on I'd see those scratches. Scratches combined with broken pegs on plastic panels, there had to be a better way. Then I came across some vintage bikes on Instagram with bare aluminum fairings and bodywork, no paint, scratches can be buffed out and panels can secured with bolts/pins/fasteners.
I asked a friend who was an aviation metal fabricator how difficult it was, "There's a learning curve but you can do it. And I have an English Wheel and sheet metal Brake I can lend you." I had no idea what I was getting my self into .

I'm halfway through my fabrication of my new body work for my GSX and about to begin on the fairing which is a major challenge so I thought I better get some practise on something smaller, replacing the acrylic bikini fairing on the CBX. Using the old fairing as a template I drew out what I wanted on some scrap from my GSX project. I wanted to completely wrap around the headlight but if I failed I was prepared to cut it back to match the template. I'm also considering swapping the CBX headlight for a 8" GSX headlight so the opening would need to fit both sizes.

https://www.cbxclub.com/forum/download/ ... 632df247a6

When you don't have the proper tools or metal fabrication experience cutting a circle is a challenge, start small and work my way out to the approximate size.

At this point I've bent it over my thigh for the approximate curve I want, refined that with the english wheel and began bringing in the tighter bottom radius with a shrinke, plastic mallet/beater bag and heel dollie.

At this point I'm quite happy with the shape, it needed some more time on the english wheel to remove imperfections and tool marks.

Balanced on the headlight here it still needs to attached to the mounts. Once the mounting is done I'll polish it up to a mirror finish. Slightly larger than the fairing it replaces, just large enough to keep the wind off my torso and bugs of the gauges.

Admirable work. I wish I had that kind of skills.