Custom windscreen to fit a fairing?

D

Dr.Jeff

New Member
I'm wondering if anyone has made a new windscreen to fit an existing fairing?
Seems like it should not be too difficult to heat up some plexy over a form, but I do not have the original screen to copy. So no idea how to get the right shaped form.
Any experience making one? I'd appreciate some input.
Thanks.
 
Depends on the fairing...

I'm in the same situation now with my TD3 replica fairing for my R5. If you're good with wood working or know someone who is, you can make a buck to form the plexiglass over. The fairing itself will dictate the shape.
 
I never thought about making your own, pretty cool. I was thinking of buying an existing one and making the fairing to fit it, but this would be so much better. Going to have to research that option. How thick would the plexiglass normally be?
 
I have moulded plexiglass in the past, key advise I could provide is to keep the temperature below the point where the plastic will deform from pressure from your hand as you mould the hot plastic. I used typical oven mitts and unfortunately the material pattern transposed on to the plastic as I shaped the hot plastic.

I would suggest that you approach a local plastic "products" vendor and ask them if they could assist you in moulding a shield.
 
Here's a DIY on blow molded windscreens. Looks like it would work for a vintage style fairing.

http://autospeed.com/cms/title_Custom-Bubble-Canopies/A_111051/article.html

CC
 
I have seen it done where you build a mold and then place the plexiglass on top of the mold and then just put it in the oven slowly raising the temp until it begins to conform to the mold, then just let it mold itself using its weight.
But I have never done it 8)
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback, I think you are all correct in your assessments.

From what I have researched, at first it sounds like a fairly basic process to heat and form the material. But the more I read, it seems to be rather particular, as others have mentioned here. The temp needs to be within a fairly narrow range and controlled for warm up and cool down, the time under the heat is specific for various types of material and thickness, the methods of forming (vacuum, blow, drape, shape) each have pros and cons, allowing for stretch and shrinkage, etc, etc.
I'm starting to think it may not be as easy as it first sounds, at least not for a compound curve that needs to fit a specific shape. Especially for someone like myself who has never done it before.
If I could find a shop that does such work that would be great.
If anyone here has the skills and experience of doing this type of work, or knows where to get it done, please let me know.
 
What fairing is it? Honestly, I'm sure someone makes the windscreen. Gustafsons (sp?) Probobly has it in stock.
 
it's pretty tricky, I've actually built a vacuum forming machine for doing a windscreen and it turned out, well... okay... it took a lot of material and time to get it even working though, before that I had called around to see if any shops locally did it, one did and gave me a quote of a $300 setup but pretty cheap per part cost, in hindsight I spent more $ and time trying to DIY. the way you're going to want to do it is to build a model of the windscreen in fiberglass, with a flat base, and make it so the edge areas all blend into a flat base, otherwise the plexi will be pulled into an undercut and you'll never remove it from your model. then bulk up the back of it to about 1/4" thickness throughout, when I did mine, I used a shop vac (pro shops use more vacuum) and it squished my model pretty good... so there's a lot of pressure to deal with (1-2 psi over a windscreen of 200 or so sq inches is a lot!), then when you're done, call around to some shops, unless you want to shell out a lot more money trying to build your own machine
 
Von,
My fairing is not un-common, especially with the vintage race crowd. It's from a Bultaco TSS (though I'm using it on another bike). I've contacted every source I could find. But to my surprise, only one place in the US makes this model screen (that I could find) and I am not particularly eager to buy from them. I actually found a source in the UK that has it. And their price is reasonable, including the shipping to the US. But I have no idea of their quality or fit, so it would be a bit of a gamble. Over all, for the amount of money these things seem to get you would think they are made from some space-age super polycarbonate material. However they are not even Perspex, just cheap acrylic.

Roc City,
I agree, you could end up spending more trying to make the rig to build a one-off. However for a company that does this regularly, it is not at all expensive to produce the mold that will make countless copies. Especially considering they already have all of the necessary gear to do it, as well as the equipment to perform the actual forming. With the price some places get, it sounds like a rather large profit margin to me.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.
 
Contact Pat Cowan (pacomotostuff on here). He's in Toronto. If anyone can get ya straight on this its him.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Roc City,
I agree, you could end up spending more trying to make the rig to build a one-off. However for a company that does this regularly, it is not at all expensive to produce the mold that will make countless copies. Especially considering they already have all of the necessary gear to do it, as well as the equipment to perform the actual forming. With the price some places get, it sounds like a rather large profit margin to me.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback.
Click to expand...

in all honesty, no one who makes the parts they sell in this business is getting rich off it, let me break down how the business you're talking about (my guess is gustaffson) breaks down.

fixed overhead - monthly
shop rent or mortgage: about a buck a foot
insurance: 3-500
electric: 100-200
waste disposal: 100
shop phone: 100
shop internet: 100
gas if heated shop: 100 avg over year
advertising: 2-500
web hosting and maintenance: 50
dec, fire, business permits: 50

now you get to figure out the actual cost of materials and labor vs. retail price, let's say the piece of plexi runs $10, retail is $120, you paid a guy $15 to make one, which after workmans comp, disability and 1/2 social security contribution comes to about $19, paying to accept a paypal or credit card payment knocks off about another $6, so you're down to net $85, and if the shop has as many molds as gustaffson does, which allows them to offer screens to just about anyone with a fairing (kinda nice of them), they've probably got another 2000' of storage space aside from production space that really doesn't make them any money,

so my guess is: if 1+1+1=3, they ain't gettin' rich off screens and could use your business
 
Roc City,
Thanks. I hear what you are saying, and agree there is a cost to producing products; as the owner of a few companies myself, I am aware of the cost of doing business.
In this case I was basing my impression of profitability by the fact that there are other companies that make and sell the same products (for other models of bikes) for about 30-40 percent less than the asking price from the company that offers them for vintage models. And the production costs are no more for one to fit an older bike than a newer one.
But make no mistake, I am not faulting them for doing so. That is why I have tried to keep any company names out of this, I do not want to bash anyone. I merely prefer to look for a more affordable alternative. Which was the intent of this thread.
Hope I'm not coming off sounding defensive here, just trying to clear up my intentions.
Thanks again for your feedback.

Von,
Thanks, I'll try sending him a PM to see what he can suggest.
 
from personal experience, I've used gustaffson parts and the quality is spot on, never used any others, so I don't know if they'd be same or worse
 
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