Well, it's arrived - WJ IV for GS850G


Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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It's not in great condition, but might clean up. If it does clean up ok, I'm thinking of just colour-matching the bike to it, in a broad fashion. Not exact, but roughly the same or complementary, so it wouldn't look wildly out of place.
The bike was paint-potted yacht white 25 years ago, as a self-preservation measure in town and motorway traffic, which worked well enough, but it's time for a change anyway.
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I see I've been blighted with the ownership of a Hella sealed beam. I wonder if this fairing came off an import, which would explain the very unusual occurence of a sealed beam on the UK market, where they've been almost unknown for 30 years and more. No matter, soon replace that with something decent.
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The seller may have tried to remove the windshield without taking the clips off first, snapping it.
However, I knew about that and asked him to include the broken pieces, so I can use it for a template for a piece of Lexan, got locally. I'm kind of surprised how flimsy the broken screen is, compared to the originals I recall.
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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This is a WJ- IV, ser no. 37-535053, and that number puts it in some part of 1981.
Making a leap of assumption here, I think the fairing was originally on a 1981 GL1100 and if the available colour choices from Honda are consulted, it would seem the nearest match to that would be Candy Muse Red, which seems to turn into a browner dull candy red with age and sun. Who knows, perhaps it's been re-painted sometime. Quite possibly a PO painted the whole bike and just chose something he liked a bit better.
Anyway, to broadly match in with the overall shade as it is now, I think I've settled on RAL 4004, Claret Violet. This is a flat colour with no metallic, but shouldn't look too bad from a distance. Like, about 50ft away, through a telescope held up the wrong way. :)
 

Kynan C.

Admin
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This is a WJ- IV, ser no. 37-535053, and that number puts it in some part of 1981.
Making a leap of assumption here, I think the fairing was originally on a 1981 GL1100 and if the available colour choices from Honda are consulted, it would seem the nearest match to that would be Candy Muse Red, which seems to turn into a browner dull candy red with age and sun. Who knows, perhaps it's been re-painted sometime. Quite possibly a PO painted the whole bike and just chose something he liked a bit better.
Anyway, to broadly match in with the overall shade as it is now, I think I've settled on RAL 4004, Claret Violet. This is a flat colour with no metallic, but shouldn't look too bad from a distance. Like, about 50ft away, through a telescope held up the wrong way. :)

I think that will look sharp color matched, the structural looks to be good as far as I can tell. No cracks, breaks, etc. I have seen that color on other Windjammers before, not sure if it is stock or a PO. Cant wait to see what you do with it. Keep us posted!
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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Well, I've scored a pair of spare turn signals and a two-part (fairing and bike sides) of the harness, which keeps it neater to fit and remove. I'm thinking seriously of re-using the Vetter plug and sockets on the other fairing(s) once I get them up and running, as it's such a good idea.
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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I also discovered something interesting - the GS850 bracket is nearly a perfect fit for the XJ900F - if the oil cooler is moved, which would be a pain in the arm. I have a plan for that bike, though; fairing related.
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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Took a punt on a pair of lowers which looked to me awfully like they'd fit. Turns out they do. :)
The seller had bought them in error for a WJ V - I thought they looked like they'd fit just about anything else, copies included, as I have a suspicion that many of the copies used Vetter lowers or simply copied them very closely anyway. These ones were in the same colour scheme as the Pantera II fairing, but not cut quite as much for a GWing, so suit the GS850 a bit more. Easily extended to suit, anyway.

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Kynan C.

Admin
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Nice score! That pic of your bike looks like the workings of a bike in a vintage garage. Makes me want to get a project bike and take it apart!
 

Saxonplace

Vetter Aficionado
Something to bear in mind when changing the sealed beam unit for a standard UK fitting is that the Vetter headlight bucket is very shallow and although the repalcement lamp unit will fit there is not enough room to put the side light holder in as the bucket is made for US lights that do not have one. I had this problem and had to add an additional sidelight under the fairing to get through an MOT.
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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Good point. I haven't used a sidelight for years anyway - the headlight is either on or off. No MoT for bikes here either :)
 

Saxonplace

Vetter Aficionado
Thats useful then then, I did try to use the Vetter amber sidelights but was told it had to be a forward facing white light. Anyway I was not keen on the Amber light idea as someone may have mistaken it for a faulty left hand turn signal if viewed from a junction so I disconnected the low wattage bulb filament and just left the indicator filament wired. It is possible to not have a side light here but the headlights must come on with the ignition without a switch thats how newer bikes get away without one.
Picture below is the LED solution I came up with which is mounted off the front brake spliter mounting bolts.

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Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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Well, after a great deal of swithering around, I decided to stick with my original plan to mount the Vetter WJ IV on the '80 GS and, since I now know a similar bracket will fit the XJ, I'll acquire one of those and fit the Pantera II on the XJ900F. This makes more sense, as the GS bike is my winter go-anywhere hack, with towbar and I can be well protected on it by the Vetter, and a couple of auxiliary lights, but its duties are as mainly go-getting and hauling stuff, all year round, but especially in winter.
The XJ is more of a longer-distance bike and the severe let-down on that is the joke of a fairing. It's utterly no use for decent protection, leaving the rider's hands, head and legs exposed to the wet and cold - and that's no use to me. A decent all-weather fairing on that makes sense. I was going to fit a BMW K-RT fairing to that, but it's going to be a bit of an awkward pita to do it, but it would have looked good, if slightly unusual at the end.
However, the XJ with the Pantera II will also look unusual, and I haven't seen another one with one of those fitted.
So, back on track now.
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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Dragged the WJ on top of the chest freezer and gave it a good going-over with T-Cut and Turtle wax, doing the black insides with Johnsone's Pledge. Hmm.... smells good down there, now.
There are still quite a few scrapes and scratches on it, but it's not as bad as it first looked. I had to get technical on the donkey of the missing locked compartment key, but that's easily replaced with a cabinet lock.
 

Saxonplace

Vetter Aficionado
Check when you get your cabinet lock, I made the mistake of thinking they were all the same but some have the square orientated 45 degrees and as I needed to use the Vetter latch bar as it was longer I had to file out the latch at the right angle for the square to make it the correct orientation when locked. I also found some had a threaded hole to locate the striker and some had a threaded post that a nut secured the striker with. I eventually found the best to do the job and bought a job lot of keyed alike locks and replaced the fairing pocket, saddlebag door and mounting frame locks and trunk lock so now just need one key for all.
 

Saxonplace

Vetter Aficionado
Dragged the WJ on top of the chest freezer and gave it a good going-over with T-Cut and Turtle wax, doing the black insides with Johnsone's Pledge. Hmm.... smells good down there, now.
There are still quite a few scrapes and scratches on it, but it's not as bad as it first looked. I had to get technical on the donkey of the missing locked compartment key, but that's easily replaced with a cabinet lock.

I found that something like "Hob Brite" cleaner for glass hobbs cleaned the inside of the fairing of painted marks without too much scratching.
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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Fortunately, the black plastic ABS internal came up well, but the scrapes on the outside appearance coat of the paintwork still show a couple of real scrapes. Annoyingly, they don't look like the type from road-rash, more like careless handling over the years it was up the back of a shed and getting relocated or dropped as it got in the way.
If they bother me enought, I might have a go with some autobody touch-up and repair a couple of missing bits of coachlining, as that's so cheap it's inconsequential. So it looks like I'm going to have a deep cherry red bike after all. Ho-hum, not that I have any objection to that - the bike started out as silver, then white, now this. Not even sure the silver was a factory colour anyway, so orignality was long lost in the mists of time.
Just waiting on a slow-boat delivery from Canada with a proper Vetter wiring harness.
I might even spring for Mr Vetter's windshield clip set, as the old clips are a bit rusty and of unknown life expectancy.
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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I had a lovely time trying to remove the internal bar weight mounts from the ST1100 handlebars. The first one came out with a lot of lube and persuasion from a slide hammer, but the LH one just wasn't shifting. I'd doused it with penetrant from inside and out and in total it had been left for a couple of days. Today, it grudgingly started to move, but the slide hammer wasn't filling me with hope that the handlebar mounts would withstand a lot of that. I resorted to making up a jury-rigged puller, which worked well in getting it out for an inch or so, and after that, the slide hammer jerked it out cleanly.
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Simply a long socket of 16 or 17mm, a 4" bit of 8mm all-thread and a nut+washer. I should have done that in the first place, would have saved a lot of grief.

Tags: ST1100 Bar end weight removal
 

Dave Ireland

Vetter Aficionado
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Finally got the WJ IV fitted, only to discover an annoying slight unsymmetry in the bracket and / or fairing. It's only obvious in the spacing twixt fairing and fuel tank, but it might be the bike the bracket came from was laid down and the bracket pushed over to the left a bit. It will do for now though, and I simply am not going to take it off and mess around with it any more. When the valve clearances next need done, I'll do it then.
Anyway, the fairing sits well enough on the bike for now, complete with the shorty screen from the other WJ IV (the blue one).
MAyhDUs.jpg



The lowers are from an unknown source, but they're identical to the Pantera ones that came with that fairing. They needed a bit of trimming, but will fit ok, once I drill a couple of new holes and get new well nuts from ebay.
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I want to fit a trio of instruments - Volts, Oil Temp and Clock as minimum. If I fit a bar-mounted clock on centre and simply fit Volts to the left and Oil Temp to the right up top in small individual 2" pods, it will leave space for a modern deckless stereo. I don't need a Cycle Sound on this one, as the 4" speaker holes are already cut in the sides, so may as well make use of them. I could fit the radio head in the left hand cubby hole, but I'd like to keep the storage as open as possible.
 
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Kynan C.

Admin
Country flag
Finally got the WJ IV fitted, only to discover an annoying slight unsymmetry in the bracket and / or fairing. It's only obvious in the spacing twixt fairing and fuel tank, but it might be the bike the bracket came from was laid down and the bracket pushed over to the left a bit. It will do for now though, and I simply am not going to take it off and mess around with it any more. When the valve clearances next need done, I'll do it then.
Anyway, the fairing sits well enough on the bike for now, complete with the shorty screen from the other WJ IV (the blue one).
MAyhDUs.jpg



The lowers are from an unknown source, but they're identical to the Pantera ones that came with that fairing. They needed a bit of trimming, but will fit ok, once I drill a couple of new holes and get new well nuts from ebay.
fWBgEMx.jpg


ABnNbYn.jpg


I want to fit a trio of instruments - Volts, Oil Temp and Clock as minimum. If I fit a bar-mounted clock on centre and simply fit Volts to the left and Oil Temp to the right up top in small individual 2" pods, it will leave space for a modern deckless stereo. I don't need a Cycle Sound on this one, as the 4" speaker holes are already cut in the sides, so may as well make use of them. I could fit the radio head in the left hand cubby hole, but I'd like to keep the storage as open as possible.

How about a Vetter Jetcockpit?

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vetter-jetcockpit-vdo-instrument-panel-inside.JPG
 
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