To tell you the truth I used a dremel on mine. Yes it does melt the plastic, cutting at a low rpm helps. Then take a piece of sandpaper and sand the edges down smooth as you can, then the final touch. Take a butane lighter and go over the edge melting all the little rough edges. Mine turned out really smooth using this method. I also took the license plate bracket off and drilled new holes in the bottom of the bracket. This allow me to raise the plate about 1". I took a piece of a shoe box, put it inside the fender and traced the edge of the fender (before I cut it) and made a template to cut by. Taped the template up on the fender where I wanted to cut it marked around it with a black maker. This gave me a a contour that was the same on both sides. I hope this helps. It is really simple. My fender is 5 1/2 inches shorter than stock. I also took the signal lights apart and shorted the stalks buy about 1 or 1 1/2 inches. I think this made them look much better as they now sit in close to the bike.