Fixing Panels to the Bike

[Tony Robson]

Hi folks

I can't find any suggestions on this anywhere so I was wondering what people had done in the past:

The Problem: How to fix Side Panels (ie Battery Covers/Side Panels - below seat above foot pegs) into place...

Standard kit seems to be a mixture of Pop fit fastenings and normally One screw.

With time and batterings the pop fit fixtures have all snapped off my side panels - I can't imagine I'm the first to have this.... So how do I fix them onto the bike so they can still easilly be removed to get access...

I've seem these Dzus fasteners:



But I don't think they are the answer. So Any suggestions out there much appreciated.

Tony.

[A.B.]

I was wondering about that too as I'm rebuilding my bike and don't have to original panels or fittings. I was going to check with Dzus's web site to see if they have something suitable in their product range. You might want to check with American racing sites as they have all sort of fitting for fiber glass body panels. Keep us posted with your findings please .

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A.B.

OasisPhoto.com – Images from the Magical Sahara.
ShortWheelbase.com – Jeep preparations.

[Tony Robson]

Hi Folks

Well to follow up from my first message in this thread here is some info on the solution I came up with for Fastening side panels onto bikes. I hope this helps people and I have tried to cover as many of the problems and justifications for doing it this way.

Before I start - I must appologies - The photos I have used are really bad quality! (Cheap camera and bad photographer!)

The Problem To Solve

Original Side Panels are fixed onto the bike using a combination of Push Fit plastic nipples that slide into gromits mounted on the bike and screw in fastening. Over the past few months all of my push fit connectors have snapped off the panels leaving them flapping about on the single screws each panel has.

Each replacement panel is about £50 GBP and just as likely to break again.

I will concentrate on only one of my panels as the process on the other side only needs ONE fastening, the same as one on the side I talk about here.

The Problems encountered

The Panel - The gap between the panel and the mounting point is 15mm at the Front and 70mm for the rear.

I considered trying to use the Dzus Quater Turn fasteners as seem in the above posting.

The main reason for not using these was that they are designed for joining two surfaces that touch, also they require holes for mounting of a certain size and location at a set distance from edges. This is not possible with the locations on my bike.

Also - the mounting depth of 70mm for the rear mount means other solutions had to be found.

The Solutions

The Materials Used

In the end I opted for using a Car Bonnet Pin set up for the rear mount. This allowed mounting on the large hole already present and could easily be adjusted for the height of the fixing. The item used was:

Click Here To see them

This product has a longer reach than the other versions available. Though the down side is the larger external mounting.

The front fastenings needed to be much smaller and less obtrusive, after considerable research I found these Dzus products: Click here to see them

I opted for the bottom setup - This meant that I would have to mount the bobbin onto the bike and have a hole large enough for it to fit through in the panel.

The End Product

After investing in a collection of springs, washers, small (m3) bolts and nylock nuts, medium (m4) bolts and nylock nuts, and a few large (m12) nuts and bolts I put together this collection:



The idea for the rear fixing was to mount the bonnet pin onto the bike, fixing a large spring on a washer to push the panel out onto the mounting. The whole pin was then mounted onto the frame in the hole where the previous grommit had been:



Through a bit of careful mounting and lining up I was able to fix the external slide mechanism in place and secure with 3 of the M3 bolts.



That was the easy one!

Note: When you find the location of the holes you need in your panel it should match up with the remains of your previous plastic mountings, Tip: Start with a small drill, say 3mm, and work upward to ensure you get the correct centre.

The Front Points

The problem with the Dzus Slide Fastener is that the bobbin is about 9mm across, so the largest bolt you can use without overhanging and with a nice finish is either an M4 Dome head or an M4 Slotted Head. I opted for the slotted head because the dome heads do not come in a long enough length.

Originally I was going to mount it directly onto the large hole (about 14mm) using large washers, fortunately I changed my mind as this would not be very stable. Instead I opted for using a larger M12 nut and bolt in the hole and using a Lathe to place a 4mm hole down the middle of the bolt!

This meant that I was able to bolt the bobbin onto the end of the bolt and secure it. The mount the M12 bolt with washers and a nut onto the hole on my bike. The final touch was to cut downa spring and screw this onto the remaining M12 thread so the the panel was being forced out and did not rattle on the fixing.

The parts used were (sorry for the quality)



The were assembled as described and mounted like this:



Finally with careful drilling and positioning the fastener was mounted on the panel.



The finished product:



The Outcome

OK - I admit the rear fastener is large, and you could swing a double decker bus of the mounting but I used this method so that I had the stability to mount a tool kit inside the panel. (Waiting to design this yet!)

It would be nicer if there was not so much on display BUT you can't have everything. With a bit more namufacturing you could place an identicle fastener on the rear also.

I hope this helps people out, please feel free to ask any question.

Tony.

[A.B.]

Tony, some great info up there... seems like the way to go in my case as well. Thanks for sharing.

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A.B.

OasisPhoto.com – Images from the Magical Sahara.
ShortWheelbase.com – Jeep preparations.