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The Great Hard Luggage Restoration Thread Saddlebags and Trunk

Discussion in 'XJ Modifications' started by vashtsdaytona, May 27, 2016.

  1. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    this is a long overdue post from me of a long term project I am working on.

    this will be a very pic heavy thread with some pictures not that interesting, but it will serve as a great resource for anyone who wants more info on the hard luggage options. I know when I was looking around I found the available images/information limiting.

    I got these bags from Beekman, thanks Beekman! and I happened to have an acquaintance (friend of a friend) who was somewhat close to his location in Canada and just so happened to be coming back to the states that weekend. So I was able to get some free international shipping.

    I already had a trunk and mount from last year, in red. but it was ruff. some scuffs and a small crack. the chrome rack was in great shape though.

    the bags from Beekman are defiantly rough, but I knew that going in and didnt worry. a few cracks and paint is faded/rattle can. missing the internal straps, 1 bag has the plastic liner. but the locks work and he had the key and the important bits were there.

    from what I had read there are 2 version of the mounting brackets, straight are and curved. in regards to the lower arm. I also thought 650 and 750 were the same. beekman had them for his 650 and mentioned that only 2 mount points lined up. on my 750 I had a hard time lining up 2 points. there were 2 bolts that could have worked but it tucked the bag too tight that the bag wouldn't mount as it hit the tire. also the factory holes in the bracket were smaller than the factory bolts at that location. so what's up with that? what bike were these brackets intended to fit on?


    so that meant I needed to add another step to this build. modifying the brackets. I went into it with the intention of modifying them as little as possible. thinking that I would just weld extensions at each mount point. leaving the basic shape stock, meaning with just a little grinding they could go back to stock. but in order to get the bag where I wanted it on the bike, position wise front to back, more concessions had to be made and I had to make some bends. about 6 bends per side were required to clear the shock. there was no way that I could see that these would have worked as is. so they must have been for some other model.

    in doing this you might notice my shame. the lower mount, sharing the passenger peg bolt, should have been bent more with the extension then added. to make that a nicer line. the vertical piece was added early on when trying to mod as little as possible and I decided not to cut it off. we will see how it all plays out.

    here are some pictures of my mock up and bracket modifications. they are in what I call a done state and are at the powder coater now. I think they will look nice once painted. as well as other parts from the bag mount system. these might not be in the greatest order but you can see the process that I went through to fit them plus what position I settled on.

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    something of note is the turn signals. I thought there was a special bracket needed that I didnt have. turns out the stock brackets are used if you flip them over and rotate the signal. but there is a nub that prevents the turn signal nut from sitting flush. I used a washer and added a hole for the numb and allows the nut to tighten flush

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    that will do for now. I have more to post, started the resto on the bags now. and have totally dissembled the luggage and I am going to do as complete a job as possible. not all the pics are great most are just for reference for reassembly. but someone else might find them useful.
     
  2. MiGhost

    MiGhost Well-Known Member

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    Good Start.
    Looks like you started with the virago mounts. My set bolts directly to the top shock mount, rear peg mount, and rear grab bar mount.

    Here are the 750 maxim mounting racks
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    I will have to get some pics of them mounted to the bike.

    ~Ghost
     
  3. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    Yea those look to be the correct ones. But I made them work so far.
     
  4. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    here are some pictures of the internals of the lock mechanisms for my trunk. each bad/trunk has 2 locks on it. for the container itself and to lock it to the mount. so the trunk has 2 of the 6 total locks on it, I decided to rekey the truck to match the bags. these wafer style tumblers are very easy to work with. you can buy other sizes, like a locksmith would have, but sometimes you can get away with putting them in a different order. in my case a couple thousands taken off with a file on 2 wafers did the trick and now all my luggage is the same key.

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  5. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    here are the bag handles before an after. they were pretty faded and I dyed them. I don't think it is good enough yet. might try something else but it is an improvement

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  6. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    this next set of photos is of the left side bag in various states of disassembly. I wont tag individual pictures as to what is what. but notice just how many pieces there are. for the mounting/reinforcements, hinges and trim. many components make up the whole

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  7. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    this is the right side, bag showing some of the cracks(they all have cracks) and more general reference photos. at the bottom you can see some of the hardware taken off, with a before and after polishing.

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  8. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    here are just some truck photos.

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  9. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    last batch for now.

    lots of aluminum trim frames that need to be cleaned polished, some dents to deal with. sooo many of them all hanging there.

    10 large (2 gallon I think) baggies to sort/hold all the hardware and bits from the full luggage set. bigger project than I though, but oh well.

    finally a test sample of repainting the locks/latches. stripped with brass wheel then dremeled out some nicks and dings, etching primer, then a color match PPG satin paint that is supposed to match the powdercoat Ive got coming. I am happy with the result

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  10. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    polishing some scratches out of the reflectors

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  11. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    today i did body work. crack repair and sanding not much to see, but a big step closer

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    k-moe likes this.
  12. hogfiddles

    hogfiddles XJ-Wizard, Host-Central NY Carb Clinic Moderator Premium Member

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    I just made some small flat-steel mounting brackets for my 650 maxim......it's the black full-dresser up in the showcase. Didn't modify the quick-release brackets at all.
     
  13. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    for me they hit the shock, so they had to be bent. tried everyway I could think of to avoid that. also the seat lock was blocked by the framework so I bent a V into at that location.
     
  14. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    got my bits back from powder. the steel turned out well

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    the alum not so much. you can see here the pits and bumps. I theorize they were contaminated and reacted when in the oven. the place I took it to have no chemical dip/cleaning process that is safe for aluminum so they went in as is. oh well price was right (free)

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    I then striped one down with the wire wheel for some testing. so far I think I will go with plastidip spray. originally they had either a clear or shellac on them, when they got to me it was all peeling and yellow. I would like to avoid leaving them raw, being it would take lots of dremel time to smooth out then polish on the buff wheel.

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  15. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    not much done, I mounted turn signals (likely need to be adjusted with the bag) and the brackets. bought stainless hardware for that. then finished painting the bag mount locks and pin and mounted. also did the turn signal extension wires and tried to clean that up with some conduit cover. maybe something better latter, idk about that.

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  16. Beekman

    Beekman XJ Grasshopper

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    Looking great so far man. Glad to hear they got to you and super stoked to see that you are putting them to good use! Keep up the good work.
     
  17. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    Just a tease. So much more to do.

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  18. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    The next few posts i am going to sort out by topic, rather that one long one. the project is basically done, but i have skipped a few posts and some of these photos are in the past.

    here is my paint setup. this is a garage paint, using PPG paint sprayed with the "fancy" harbor frieght HVLP and my HF 10gallong compresosr with a seperator and inline filter. using a 2 primer, follwed by a sealer.

    the color is not the correct yamaha. It is red and it is a tri coat so that is expensive. using my connections i was able to get PPG at cost but i was limited to a chip color only. meaning not tininting no testing just get as close via chip as possible. what i settled on was a chrysler color, inferno red pearl (i think was the offical name, dont quote me and i could check before someone else goes buying). which is also a tircoat. a base of metalic red with a mid coat of candy red. the red is very close, again i spent a lot of time with paint chips and i think its as close as it gets. the biggest difference is the size of the metalic flake. the yamaha paint has bigger peices in it so they do catch the eye differently but i knew it wouldnt be 100% and i didnt want to do the tank since it is nice orginial.

    anyway after sealer, 2 coats base, 2 coats mid, then i do 3-4 wet coats of a euro clear. I need the build so I can cut and buff on it since this is a garage paint from cheap equipment. overall it went well. i had an accident with the trunk though. plastic fell down on it leaving lots of debris. which i sanded out and tried just redo the base. but it wasnt dry enough and the clear reacted. so i had to wait for the next day i decived to sand it down, re seal it, base, mid and clear. so that sucked.

    this is only my 2nd time with a tricoat and my first candy. my other attempted was a white with a pearl mid coat, to pull off a yamaha bluish white coaktail.

    here are just some pcitures of my painting process.

    and even though this was a cheap garage paint i still wore my respirator, gloves, paint suit and goggles, these chemicals are danagerous even in small quantities. wear your PPE

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  19. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    some results, after starting to cut and buff these out


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  20. vashtsdaytona

    vashtsdaytona Active Member

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    now it after all that work, and boy was it a lot of work, it was time to take those 10 bags of parts and reassemble this luggauge. not many pictures of that a couple key things.

    I used the appropriate stanless pop rivets with a combination of alumimum semi tubular rivets. exaclty like factory. many of these next puictures you might see various compounts and cleaners and smudges and stuff as it was a work in progress.

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    i replaced all the hardware as i went along and bought out both sister cities where i live of #4 1/4 black sheet metal screws, panhead. needed about 50 and could only be found per piece at the local hardware stores in small quantitiy. new metric acron nuts and some M4 bolts and machine screws
     

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