1978 Honda Gold Wing GL1000 Restoration

[Movanm]

Hello all.

I just finished restoring my Gold Wing. Had it for 30 years/24,000 miles. Sold it in pristine condition in 2009 to a guy my Dad knew. He calls my Dad in 2013 and asks if I want the bike back. I say yes sight-unseen. My Dad gives the guy the check on my behalf. I finally come over and see it and am immediately depressed as to the condition he put it in after driving it 14,000 more miles. So I stored it in the corner of my Dad's warehouse; I couldn't bear looking at it. Then this past October, I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" on vacation. So I said to myself, I'm going to bring my bike back to new condition. So come January 2nd of this year, I treated the restoration as my full time job. Love how it turned out. Only thing left to do is to cut the windshield down a bit, and find two side panels that are missing from the tail trunk (any ideas?).

 

[TexasBulldogger]

Great looking ‘78. That blue was my original. Full Vetter tour set with a huge Califia trunk.

 

[Kynan C.]

Thanks for sharing your story and pics! So so so and so cool. I miss my Vetterized bikes. I dug through the photo archive and found this pic of a 75 I bought in 2016. I really liked riding that bike, it felt like it was built to handle all the Vetter accessories.

 

[KGBnut]

Those side panels pop up on eBay every now and again. Not terrible to find.

I've cut down a few of those windshields. It is not hard, but you have to be careful. First, I cover both sides of the cut area with blue masking tape. I eyeball the height I want. I want it high enough to protect me, but if I get heavy rain I want to be able to see over it with a gentle tilt up of my head (but, not straining my neck). I mark it with a Sharpie on the tape, and make a template for the curve on the right and left so I can be sure they match. I then cut it with a reciprocating saw with a fine-tooth blade, close to, but not quite at the line.

I then take the windshield off and use my belt sander to bring it down to the line, using increasingly fine grit belts. A little extra protection on the stop of the sander is a good idea to avoid scratching. I use a few layers of duct tape.

I now return the windshield to the bike. I STILL HAVE NOT TAKE OFF THE BLUE TAPE! Next, I use a small, hand-held vibrating sander with very fine paper and burnish the edges. If you look at the original windshield you will see that the edges are not flat, but rather gently curved. As I burnish the edges I work to match that original curve. It is easier than I first expected. Once you are completely satisfied you can remove the blue tape.

Be very careful not to scratch the part of the windshield that you want to keep. Original Vetter windshields have some sort of coating on them that makes it impossible to polish out a scratch... trust me, I have tried, and I have paid professionals to try as well. If it is aftermarket, you might get lucky, but if it has a Vetter logo molded into the lower edge, you can't remove those scratches. Oh, and aftermarket windshields tend to be pretty flimsy.

 

[Movanm]

Thanks. I used a router with a bit optimized for cutting plexiglass. Used a test piece to get a feel for it. Zip zip, done!

 

[KGBnut]

Very nicely done!