Fitting of swing arm

Hi everyone, I have a 2001 vl800 which I’m currently converting back to a two wheeler and am attempting to fit the swing arm. When I screw in the swing arm bolts I find that there is a sizeable gap between frame and swing arm, in the past with other bikes I’ve done up they’ve had dust covers, but I can’t find anywhere that this is the case with my vl800.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks.