Cut my OEM windshield down.

[ken]

Well I decided to cut my OEM windshield down to 10" so that I could see over instead of having to look thru it. I followed the direction on the forum. I taped (yellow masking tape)both side to make sure I did not scratch it, as it WAS in perfect shape. Got out the jig saw, a metal cutting blade and some sand paper. The cut went perfect. Got her sand smooth and all looked good. At this point I'm feeling really proud of the job I did. Now it was time to remove the tape. Things went down hill from here. As I removed the tape part of the clear coating in the windshield peeled of with the tape. . So I now have a shield I can see over, but I can't stand looking at the damage I did.

[Drreb]

Man that's tough! I have a windshield listed for $100.00 would take less if your interested. But in any event I am sorry! Bummer!

[vegastruckee]

Did the same thing with the same result..... I took a masking tape style lint roller and went over the windshield about 100 times and removed all the clear coat. It took most of the tape on the lint roller but I can actually look through the shield and not be mad about it. Good luck hope this helps a little

[ken]

Thanks for the offer, but I still have a clearview I can put on.

 

Man that's tough! I have a windshield listed for $100.00 would take less if your interested. But in any event I am sorry! Bummer!

[Kregerdoodle]

I had the same thing happen to mine, but I used the blue painters tape, the only time I notice where the coating is off is when the winsheild fogs up... mine was not is good shape to start with, so I figured what the heck, if I mess it up I am out nada, need a new one any way..

[CaptainJoe]

I know it's a little late now... An alternative to taping the windshield is to tape ( 2 layers ) to the bottom of your jigsaw. That way it can't pull anything off of your windshield. You just don't want metal to plastic contact. Plastic to tape is much safer

[Trader]

the idea of taping is also to minimize splintering or cracking...it's not just to protect the plastic from the jig saw feet.

[wes0778]

We won't talk about why (after hitting the donate button) I got the idea of cutting my windshield from the bottom. No tape necessary, no danger of damaging the finish and the original top profile stays perfect. I cut off 1" and relocated the holes, with my Roto-Zip.

[ken]

I had an 05 RSV that I cut the shield down from the bottom. The problem with that is as you get closer to the top it gets more narrow. This caused a gap on eash side where the shield bolts to the fairing allowing water to get in.

 

We won't talk about why (after hitting the donate button) I got the idea of cutting my windshield from the bottom. No tape necessary, no danger of damaging the finish and the original top profile stays perfect. I cut off 1" and relocated the holes, with my Roto-Zip.

[CaptainJoe]

"the idea of taping is also to minimize splintering or cracking...it's not just to protect the plastic from the jig saw feet. "

 

My experience with cutting plastic is that normally, it has a tenedency to just barely melt if you have it at the correct speed and are using the proper blade. Personally, I'd make a "Practice cut" ABOVE the line I wanted. If you slow jig saw down and have a metal blade(more teeth per inch) instead of a wood blade (less teeth per inch) it should not crack. If you are speed control challenged, you could also use a trick to cutting veneer by using your template to scour the surface of your windshield with a utility knife, then cut to one side of that edge. Again, its better to practice on an area of your windshield that you know is going to be scrap. Just make sure you leave at least 3/4 of an inch on the scrap side for the bottom of your jig saw to ride on, cause its a pain to try to hold one by prutting all of the pressure on one side.

[barend]

I cut 2 inch of the top of mine using blue painters tape, a veneer blade and the jig saw on two with no problem. Turned out great, allows me to look over while still preventing the wind buffet.

 

I do have a bad shield from a MkII (which was an inch shorter then my MkI shield) from which I cut three inches off. I did not finish it! I do like that height, but the wind hits the helmet and gets annoying after a while. Anywho, if you want to try it out and see if you like a shorter windshield before cutting your up, you can have this one, come and get it, or pay shipping.

[straycatt]

When I cut mine down, I used an upright bandsaw and it worked great.

I used some packing tape to protect the plastic that I thought wouldn't pull the coating off. Wrong.

 

Gotta try the lint roller thing to get the rest of it off. I think the shield will need to be clean for that to work though. I tried duct tape, but the Pledge that I used to clean the shield when I finished the cut/file/sanding wouldn't let the tape stick.