Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Custom Fitting a Lowbrow Tsunami Fender to a 1982 - 1993 Harley-Davidson Sportster


Lowbrow Customs' Tsunami Fenders are made to bolt directly to your Harley-Davidson Sportster from 1994 - 2016. However, for those of you wishing to run a Tsunami Fender on your 1982 - 1993 H-D Sportster it can be done with just a little bit of effort. Some tools you will need to complete this simple fab job: scribe or fine sharpie / pencil, drill & drill bits, grinder with a cut-off wheel or a hacksaw and some sand paper.


This 1993 Harley-Davidson Sportster with the modified Tsunami Fender mounted and painted.

The Gasbox 86-03 Frisco Style Gas Tank Lift Kit and Pleated Sporty Solo Seat help complete the new stance offered up to this custom Sportster with the help of the Tsunami Fender.


Using the 1994-2003 Tsunami Fender on this 1993 Sportster, the only bolt hole that lines up is the center hole that is located under the seat. Once you have removed your stock fender, use the stock nut and bolt from your motorcycle to bolt the Tsunami Fender in place.


Once you have the fender held in place with the center bolt you can see how the fender lines up to the fender struts. Ensuring you have plenty of clearance between the tire and fender, mark where you will need to drill the new mounting holes in your Tsunami Fender. This can be done by scribing the fender with a sharp scribe through the fender strut holes, or a pencil or pen. Remove the fender, center punch the holes (you can do this using a hammer and punch to mark the center of each hole you will be drilling) to ensure your drill bit doesn't wander and drill them to size for your mounting hardware. You can then bolt the fender fully in place.
Once the fender is bolted securely in place, trace along the fender strut to mark where to cut off any excess material on the fender. This can be done with an angle grinder with a cut off wheel, or if need be you can even use a hacksaw to cut the aluminum pretty quickly. You can also trim your fender struts shorter to remove the excess length if you are not using the stock turn signals location, further cleaning up the rear mounting area. Use the sand paper or a sandpaper flap disk on your grinder to smooth out any rough edges and clean up the radius where you trimmed the fender. That's it! Paired with a few other Sportster chopper parts your bike can go from stock to custom in an afternoon and without breaking the bank.