New rear fender on ironhead frame

[ricochet]

Has anyone here fit a late model Sportster rear fender onto a older ironhead frame say early 70's vintage.  I know anything can be made to fit, I've done my share, but was curious before trying if there are any tricks or easy ways to fit it up mayby saving paint and utilizing same or similar fender mounting.  Or is is way too off to consider.  I'd likely make whatever changes required regarding the oil tank and battery mounting etc.

ricochet

[HarleyGuy4657]

I put a fender off a nightster on my71. All I had to do is move the fender struts to the outside of the frame instead of the inside. I didn't like the chopped fender as much as the std length one so I took it back off , but it was easy to do. If you are looking for a chopped fender I would make you a deal on one.

[ricochet]

Thanks.  That's great.  Did use use the 71 type struts or the late model?  Seems even better if the struts would cover the frame attachment tabs.  Did the geometry and look of the fender end up being in the right place visually?

Thanks again,

ricochet

[eglideic]

 Why do you need to ruin a perfectly good bike by using the wrong size wheel and an oddball fender? The bike was designed for an 18 inch wheel. That's what it needs. Why do you think that other guy removed the fender he tried to use? it did't work on that bike.

[Lew]

Wheel?  Thought this was a question about rear fenders.......
It's been my experience that rear fender changes on the sporties are fairly easy and straight forward, with no serious hacking.

Lew 

[ricochet]

I haven't done a thing yet and never mentioned a wheel.  What I have is a stray ironhead frame and another motor that will be the basis of a one off bike.  I'd seen some nice clean builds using the right components in the right combinations and there's a lot of new take off's out there with factory paint to boot.  If it were a virgin I'd leave it that way.

ricochet

[HarleyGuy4657]

I used the 71 struts just moved them to the outside of the frame. As for not changing the bike from stock , not everyone wants to keep there bike stock . That is why there so many after market parts available. Some of us like to change up there bikes so that they don't look like every other bike out there. Personally I like having something different from every one else.

[ricochet]

Thanks for replies guys.  Harleyguy.  The comment about the nightster rear fender versus the regular caused me to take a hard look at that and I'm glad I did.  I was looking at those take offs and feel the same way.  The cut off fender is cool but not what I want expecially with having to side mount the tag assembly.  Still wanting traditional sprotster lines somewhat.

ricochet

[ricochet]

I know I should have a couple of pics.  I'll charge the camera and take some over the weekend.  What worked pretty well was using an 04 fender with the stock ironhead struts mounted outside the frame tabs like was mentioned.  It involved knocking off the 2 shock spacers from the frame and a hair bit of relieving on the inside and bottom of each strut in an inconspicuous spot so the mounting holes matched naturally without having to be bored to fit.  You then have about 1/4 each side between the fender itself and the struts.  It looked like you could tweak the struts to meet the fender but what I did was to fabricate black HDPE backers into the struts to fill the gap.  Looks pretty good.  Could have just used spacers but that would leave unused holes in the fender visible.  Of course, after doing this I see in eBay struts that are straight (without the jog in them) specifically to mount a 7' wide fender on ironheads using the stock type mounting inside the frame tabs.  FWIW I like the black plastic backer as this way the chrome strut covers the frame tabs.

ricochet