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Tools
needed
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xxx
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Tape
measure |
Drill
& ¼ inch bit & 1/8 inch bit |
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xxx
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Stapler
with ¼ or 5/16 inch staples |
7/16 socket
wrench with extension |
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xxx
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8mm
combination or open-end wrench |
Scissors |
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xxx
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Rasp
or file or belt sander |
Jigsaw or
saber saw |
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xxx
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Straight
edge or yardstick |
Felt tip
marker |
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xxx
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Supplies needed:
Three 1 ¼ or 1 ½ inch long, quarter inch bolts with rounded heads and washers and nuts
Three 1-inch long, quarter inch bolts-wing nuts optional
Thin stiff paperboard or cardboard to make a pattern at least 4 ½ inches by 19 ¼ inches (for a backrest 10 inches higher than stock)
¾ inch thick quality plywood at least 4 ½ inches by 39 ¼ (for a backrest 10 inches higher than stock)
Vinyl upholstery-I used reinforced marine grade (what I bought was 54 inches wide and I bought a 36 inch length of it)
Button-making kit-I used three buttons for the 10-inch extension
Scrap carpet pad-3 ¾ inches by 30 inches for the 10-inch extension
About 62 inches of round flexible cord around ¼ inch thick (I used old computer networking cable)
3 small washers
Upholstery needle/Upholstery thread
Glue that works on porous surfaces (carpet pad)
Industrial strength self adhesive
Velcro 2 inches by 20 inches (one box of 2 inches by 5 ft is more than
enough and less expensive than buying several
smaller pieces.)
6 or 8 #6 by 1inch sheet metal screws
First:
Remove the backrest pad, toolbox cover, tools and back seat. The emblem is held
on with adhesive tape. If pulled off carefully you can reinstall it using fresh
tape. A little heat from a hair dryer may help. There are two alignment holes
under the emblem. The reflector is held on with a nut that is covered with protective
tape. After removing the tape use the 8mm wrench to remove the nut. The reflector
is easily reinstalled if so desired.
Your backrest should now look like this. Now open up those holes to accept a ¼ inch bolt.
I chose to have my homemade backrest be the same width of the black part of the toolbox so the chrome trim on each side would show from the back. I also made one a little wider that covered the chrome and didn’t like it as much. My toolbox is not a true rectangle; it is 4 ½ inches wide at the bottom tapering to 3 ¾ inches wide at the top.
Using the stiff paperboard I traced around the backrest to get a rough idea of size.
After tracing and trimming, my final template is 4 ½ inches wide at the bottom and at 9 3/8 inches from the bottom; it has tapered to 3 ¾ inches wide. It continues at 3 ¾ inches wide for another 10 inches. This last 3 ¾ inches by 10 inches is the actual extension.
After cutting out the template, hold it up to the backrest to make sure it fits correctly.
Lay the template on the wood and trace around it with the marker.
Cut the wood using the jig or saber saw. I cut on the inside of the line since the vinyl material will take up some room.
Place the wood on the bike. Notice that the angle at the bottom will need some sanding or filing if you have a luggage rack like mine.
After sanding an angle it fits the luggage rack better.
Fit the wood up to the backrest and make any final adjustments. I needed to use a file and belt sander to smooth where I didn’t cut straight. Round all of the edges and corners where the vinyl will be wrapped. This will help keep the vinyl from tearing. Also make sure it will be at the height you want. If it is too high this is the time to shorten it and adjust the rest of the measurements. A picture of the 10-inch extension with my wife sitting against it is below. She is 5’ 7” and it seemed to fit her fine. I made a shorter one that works fine with my T-Bag.
After making the final adjustments, hold the wood up to the backrest. If you have a luggage rack, place a piece of folder paper between the bottom of the wood and the luggage rack to approximate the thickness of the vinyl. An extra set of hands is helpful here. Also, if your bike is on the kickstand it is harder to make sure everything lines up since it is at an angle. On the third extension I made I used my Craftsman jack to hold the bike upright. This made it a bit easier to make sure that everything lined up correctly. After making sure that everything is lined up, use the marker to mark where to drill the three-¼ inch holes.
Drill the holes using the ¼ inch bit.
Insert the three longer bolts as shown.
Fit the wood to the backrest and tighten the bolts. Make sure that the backrest lines up correctly with the bike. After making any final sanding/filing/drilling adjustments I tightened the bolts very, very tight. I wanted to sink the heads in the wood so it wouldn’t show through the vinyl.
I then removed the longer bolts and replaced them with the 1-inch bolts. Now that the wood was compressed where the head goes, the 1 inch bolts just fit and are also short enough that the stock tools will still fit. Reinstall the wood using the 1-inch bolts making sure that they are long enough to thread the washer and nut.
Place the vinyl upside down (pretty side down) on a flat surface big enough for the wood to fit. Keep the 1-inch bolts in the wood and lay it on the vinyl with the bolts pointing up (heads down). Trim the vinyl to wrap around the wood all the way on the sides and a couple of inches on each end. My rough cut was around 10 ½ inches by 26 inches.
I started stapling
in the middle of a side keeping the fabric tight without
stretching it. I would staple two or three and then tighten the fabric and staple
on the other side. Don’t staple all the way to the end yet.
Carefully cut and staple around the bolts.
I found that the corners
and ends were the hardest. I wanted a nice clean
look and found that trimming and folding worked best.
After some careful
trimming and testing, a staple in the very end (the ¾ inch edge)
helps hold it. On the corners and ends I needed to pull the fabric tighter
(almost stretching it) for it to look the best.
After folding the fabric over the end, staple it like on the sides.
Now mount this to the toolbox.
Step back and check out your work.
Now measure from the top of the stock backrest to the top of your wood extension. You will cut two pieces of wood 3 ¾ by this measurement. This should be about 10 inches. Subtract 1/8 to ¼ inch from the long measurement to allow for the thickness of the fabric. After cutting the wood, file or sand the edges and corners where fabric will go to help prevent tearing. In the picture below, the one on the right has the edges rounded and the left one is not yet rounded.
Both of these pieces of wood should be identical now. Lay them on the carpet pad and trace around them with the marker. I used ½ inch thick carpet pad and needed three layers. You may need to adjust if you want more or less padding.
Cut out the carpet pad and glue the three layers together. Don’t glue in the center if you are going to use buttons since the glue will make it more difficult to get the needle and thread through. I then put the carpet pad between wood in my vice with gentle pressure. Just enough pressure to make sure that the adhesive made good contact. A little weight on the pads would work as well.
Next take one of the pieces of wood and measure around the outside edge. It should be about 29 inches. Cut a piece of vinyl 3 inches by 30 inches. Now we want to wrap the outside edge of the wood (the back and front of this piece not be seen). Start stapling at the bottom (one of the 3 ¾ inch ends) so that the seam will be somewhat hidden. I found it best to not staple the corners until after the sides were done.
After the four sides were done, I worked on the corners. Once again pulling and testing before stapling. After stapling, trim off the extra vinyl.
Now start on the decorative piping. Cut two pieces of vinyl 2 inches by 32 inches. Also cut 2 pieces of flexible cord 30 inches long.
Now wrap the vinyl around the cord and staple it starting at the bottom where the other seam is. Make sure that the cord is on the outside of the wood. It is used to help provide a more finished look and hide the seams between the different pieces of wood.
Continue stapling all the way around the wood making sure that the cord is always outside the edge of the wood. When done you should have a little extra cord and vinyl to trim away.
Turn this same board over and add the cord to the other side in the same way. When both sides are done it should look like this.
Now drill several 1/8 inch holes through the back. These holes will use the #6 1-inch sheet metal screws to hold this small piece of wood to the main part of the backrest. After drilling the 1/8 inch holes all the way through, I then used a ¼ inch bit and drilled in the same holes down about ¼ inch to make room to countersink the holes for the sheet metal screw heads.
Now attach this piece of wood to the backrest using the sheet metal screws. It should now look like this.
If you are going to use buttons, take the remaining piece of wood and mark where the buttons will be. On this extension I used three buttons. On a shorter one I used two. After marking where you want the buttons to be, drill a 1/8 inch hole for each button.
Retrieve the glued carpet pad and glue it to the wood.
Lay the vinyl (pretty side down) on a flat surface and place the wood/pad down on the vinyl with pad side down. Measure so that the vinyl will go around the wood and pad. Make sure not to cover the buttonholes. A piece 11 inches by 18 inches should be pretty close.
Staple as before starting on the long sides and doing the ends/corners last.
Like before, it took some stretching, testing, trimming to get the ends to look good.
When done it should look like this.
Make buttons per instructions in
the kit.
Hopefully they will look like this.
Using the 1/8 inch drill bit, drill through the previously drilled holes in the wood, going through the pad and vinyl where each button will go. Be careful of the angle to make sure that the hole has the same placement on the vinyl as on the wood. A slight wrong angle could place the hole in the vinyl in the wrong place for your button.
I used upholstery tread (quadrupled for strength) and placed the thread through the button as usual and then slid the upholstery needle up over all the thread and slid it close to the button.
After pushing the needle through the vinyl, pad and out the wood I put one half of the thread through the middle of a small washer and the other half on the outside of the washer.
Tie the thread together and see how tight you will need to pull it to give the buttons the right tension on the vinyl. I put a golf ball on the table, then put the button on top of it and pushed down to help press the button into the pad. After doing this a few times and getting the button at the depth I wanted I tied off the thread.
Then take the self-adhesive Velcro and attach it to the exposed wood on your bike. I used the “fuzzy” part on the bike. Trim it to fit and then staple it well. The picture below shows half of it done.
Attach the stiffer part of the Velcro to the back of the pad with the buttons. Trim and staple.
On one of my backrests I needed to make an extra filler since the extra thickness of the vinyl in the corners prevented the Velcro from making good contact. To fill this, I just stuck two opposite pieces of Velcro together (adhesive side to adhesive side) and used it as filler in the low area. This has held up very well and has not come loose at 80 mph speeds.
Hopefully your backrest looks like
The backrest can be removed in a minute or two. And you can reinstall your Emblem and reflector if you want to. I also purchased a self-adhesive reflector and attached it to the back of the extension for extra safety.
This was done on a 1998 VS1400 and
can easily be done in 2 or 3 hours.
I can be reached at davidf@mchsi.com if you have questions.
David is a member of the Cafe
There
is a lot of useful information on this site, but errors are possible
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Helpful
answers are $1.00 each
dumb looks are still FREE
These Tips come from many people,
on the various
motorcycle forums I frequent.
Note:
"VS" Intruders & "S" series Boulevards
I started gathering this information in 2002
Some of it has been collected since 1985
Some information (parts & part numbers/suppliers etc...)
are no longer
available or have Changed. The Information contained in these pages,
should be considered to be a
GUIDE, on where to start YOUR search if
information has Changed
If You Attempt Modifications & Ruin Your Motorcycle
It Is Your Problem.
If You Are Not Mechanically Inclined,
Get Help From Someone Who Is
I Am Not Responsible For Use/Misuse Of These Tips &
Tricks
Use @ Your Discretion
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©
2002-------> Intruder Alert.Ca |
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