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| Vetter Owner's Bikes Page 9 Posted Sep 8, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Liberator L3538, looking better than it did 34 years ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| James Walterich of New York took me by surprize with this restoration project: "I thought you might like to see my restored Liberator. In the winter of 2008 I was going to change my 2002 FLHT (electra glide standard) into a Road Glide.
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| This is one heck of a fairing! Can you imagine the comfort? Notice the instrument panel. We used VDO gauges and sending units. A complete Liberator also has the plastic panels that cover the big opening where the forks turn as seen above. In addition, we included an additional tonneau that bridged the big gap between the two sides. All this is more completely clarified in the original Liberator Mounting Instructions which you may download. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| James continues "It works great. A little hot on warm days, so we put Pop Vents in the Windshield. Great on Cold or wet Days. And enough storage so the rain suit is always there.
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| Craig adds: There is something very simple and elegant about James' Liberator. All Liberators went out with the gold Scotchlite stripes but I think this bike will look better without the stripes. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| James Hill writes: Last October my son and I bought two Goldwings on Craig's List. Mine has a Windjammer V fairing, trunk and sidebags, unfortunately well abused. I want to repaint the bike and fairing and bags, but I have never tried painting ABS plastic. Any suggestions for a successful paint job would be appreciated. I am including a picture of the bike loaded and ready to tour northern NM on a camping and fly fishing trip. We did 1000 miles in 9 days and had a ball. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Windjammer V serial # 63-106844 Bags #29-59286 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If you have suggestions for refinishing I would appreciate the information. Thanks in advance James Hill Craig answers: Repaint the fairing, Lowers, saddlebag & Tailtrunk doors and color panel inserts with urethane paint... the kind bodyshops use for flexible bumpers. These parts are flexible ABS. Flexible paint is important. Rigid paint might get cracks and the cracks could migrate to the ABS substrate. Never try to paint the black bodies of the saddlebags themselves. They are made of polyethylene which does not accept any paint known to man. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Mike and Dawn Vaillancourt's beautiful 1975 GL1000 with Windjammer #37-509650 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike says: "Here is a pic of my Vetter equipped 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing that I won the trophy at the Gold Wing Road Riders Colorado District Rally last weekend. I bought my '75 Gold Wing from the original owner 18 years ago back in New Hampshire. It stayed a stock motorcycle until about 4 years ago then I decided to make it a full dress tourer." Mike says that the saddlebag brackets from a 1979 GL fit perfectly but the Tail Trunk bracket had to be modified to clear the seat. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Robert Sherer's pretty CB750F in Japan Notice the bottom of the saddlebag. We had to modify a set of molds to clear the upswept pipes. This is one of those sets. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hi, Craig, I purchased the fairing, lowers, stereo unit and bags when we were in the US in '80, and I ordered them through a magazine ad, like Motorcyclist. (Man! I still remember how excited I was when that stuff arrived!) This was in the spring of '80, we packed up our freight and shipped around June of '80 and it finally arrived in September. I started looking for used 750's, couldn't find any and ended up deciding to buy this one new. I didn't even get the bike till early December of '80! Like I said before, I rode it home from the dealer's (about 4 kilometers) and immediately stripped the thing down, preparing it for my Vetter stuff. Brand new headlight shell, that has only been 4 kilo! As I rode, I learned that it was hard to get to the helmet lock with the bags in place, so began thinking about the tailtrunk but we didn't have another furlough until '85, so I put up with not having storage for my helmet for four years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Windjammer 5: 63-107149 Bags: 29-56004 Tail trunk: 36-252069 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| My bike is the ONLY Honda 750F in Matsuyama Japan with Vetter stuff on it. No, I have the ONLY bike in the city, and maybe the entire island, with Vetter equipment! It always draws glances and I am proud! I have kept the bike covered all these years whenever I'm not ON it, so it still looks very good!... even though the aluminum parts on the bike are on their second refninshing and are needing it again. ha! The cherry blossom shots were taken in our neighborhood, and the one with the rear of the Vetter trunk was with the Inland Sea in the background..... lots of beautiful scenery where I live! Robert Sherer, Japan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | Hello Carol and Craig! I'm trying to keep my 78' and 79' Goldwings up to date so just ordered the foam for the windshield. I crashed last Sunday. I have been riding for 37 yrs, over a qtr million miles and it's my first time going down! Fortunately not a scratch on me. But my shoulder are kind of sore. Only the right rear blinker broke and the Faring got a little scratched but the windshield took the brunt of it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mike's handsone 1979 GL, all color matched | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Page posted Sep 12, 2009 Updated Sep 20, 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reader's favorite pics are vintage images of when we were young, our girlfriends were "sweet young things" and our dogs were pups. Thanks Craig.
