Refinished Saddlebag After Tip Over.

So about a month or so ago I had a tip over & my right side saddlebag got pretty rashed up. After doing some poking around online & asking for some insight in another thread I decided to have a go at this myself. Ordered up some paint from Color Rite then went to work. There's been plenty of paint "how to's" here so I'll keep it short.


This is what I started with after the drop. Some of those scratches are pretty deep. Started sanding with 320g & worked up to 800g. Some of scratches were deep enough to require filler. For that I used Bondo 806 Flexible Bumper Repair. Its a two part epoxy made for plastic materials. I think regular Bondo would have worked here as it would have be just a skim coat. But I'ver read to many horror stories about it when used on plastic.



After sanding I shot a thin coat of primer to see how the surface looked. Surface prepped looked good but it was apparent that my original plan of painting the damaged portion of the bag wasn't going to work. From here I decided to tear it down & repaint the whole outer cover.



Had to grind away some of the plastic material to remove the hinge pins. More sanding then it was time for paint. Color Rite recommends doing a spray out to test the color match. This also helps determine the amount of coats needed to help get a good match. Well the nozzle on the color can was toast. Paint basically dribbled out from the base of the nozzle. I called their customer service on a Mon evening & explained the situation. Sent me out a new can no questions asked. Kudos!

I ended up laying down 2 coats of primer, 3 color coats, & 2 clear coats. Per the Color Rite instructions I let the paint dry for 5 days before cutting & buffing. Which was very necessary as there was a fair amount of orange peel. I went with Mequiars Medium Cut Cleaner first.



At first I thought this looked pretty good. Then I did a side by side with the left side bag. The color wasn't a perfect match & I was ok with that. But there was way to much texture on the repaired bag.



Wet sanded with 2000g followed by the cut/ cleaner. Then I used Mequiars Ultimate compound followed by their Swirl X swirl remover. I should note all buffing was done with a Porter Cable random orbital buffer w/ Sonus foam pads & micro fiber bonnets. After wet sanding & buffing. Not as smooth as the factory finish but so much better that it was!



Another side by side:



Thats a wrap. Still need to install the reflector and Interceptor badge. Not a bad project. The color isn't perfect but its damn close. Spent about $75-100 in materials & about 8hrs of my time. Most of the stuff I already had on hand from various other projects. Not sure if thats a big savings over having it done by a bodyshop, never took the time to get estimates. Huge savings over buying off CL or buying new.



Materials used: 1 can ea Color Rite primer, color & clear coat; various 3M sandpapers 320 to 2000g; 3M sanding disc; 3M adhesive remover; 3M Bondo 806 epoxy; Mequiars Med Cut Cleaner, Ultimate Compound, & Swirl X; Sonus foam buffing pads & microfiber bonnets; Porter Cable random orbital buffer; Ingersol Rand cordless angle grinder; and a few other things.

 

Well done. I have scratches on one of my hard cases at the moment and need to have it fixed. I don't know if I have the ability to do what you did, so I think I will have a body shop give me an estimate first. Can I ask what the Color Rite color code was that you used?

 

Thanks Stew. PB308M Pearl Spencer Blue. Just hit their website www.colorrite.com and enter your bike make, model & yr. It brings up the colors for appropriate yr & so on.

If just have some scratches I would try some rubbing compounds first followed by sealer/ wax.

 

That may actually be all I need. I'll let you know how it ends up. Thanks.

 

Looks good!!! I did the same with my hard bags after my Viffer wanted to take an asphalt nap. There was a guy on here (VFRHusband) who walked me through it too. You pretty much nailed it on your post.