I checked on line and the covers ARE available, used. For $200. Per side. 
Needless to say, the CFO at Cheap Charlie's Motorcycle Emporium ain't gonna go for that. If it was for a rare and valuable bike, sure. For a mass-produced Honda? Nuh-uh.
So, I came up with an idea in rough form:
The originals popped into rubber grommets with a stud. I sketched this up in TinkerCAD and printed out a sample and it seems to A) fit and B) be rugged enough, so I printed a handful of them.
Then I drilled them so they can be screwed to the back of the replacement panel. Got to play with my mill a little for the first time in months.
Here's one popped into the grommet on the bike. A little Vaseline helped with insertion. (STOP it!
)
I screwed a pair of them to a piece of light tin. I started with CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) and transferred that to a piece of flashing and then touched up the flashing on the belt sander to fit reasonably well.
And here's the rough panel popped into the mounts. The trial panel is mostly 2D and the finished panel will need some 3D adjustments to look decent, along with more accurate trimming around the edges and a bottom mounting grommet tacked onto the frame.
So, all this is primarily proof of concept, but I'm pleased enough with the results to pursue it using a nice piece of aluminum.
Needless to say, the CFO at Cheap Charlie's Motorcycle Emporium ain't gonna go for that. If it was for a rare and valuable bike, sure. For a mass-produced Honda? Nuh-uh.So, I came up with an idea in rough form:
The originals popped into rubber grommets with a stud. I sketched this up in TinkerCAD and printed out a sample and it seems to A) fit and B) be rugged enough, so I printed a handful of them.
Then I drilled them so they can be screwed to the back of the replacement panel. Got to play with my mill a little for the first time in months.
Here's one popped into the grommet on the bike. A little Vaseline helped with insertion. (STOP it!
)I screwed a pair of them to a piece of light tin. I started with CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) and transferred that to a piece of flashing and then touched up the flashing on the belt sander to fit reasonably well.
And here's the rough panel popped into the mounts. The trial panel is mostly 2D and the finished panel will need some 3D adjustments to look decent, along with more accurate trimming around the edges and a bottom mounting grommet tacked onto the frame.
So, all this is primarily proof of concept, but I'm pleased enough with the results to pursue it using a nice piece of aluminum.
