1200GSA Pannier painting

topcat2006

Well-known member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
2,112
Reaction score
15
Location
Gloucestershire
I'd previously sprayed the panniers with plastikote and found the coating to be to temporary to be permanent. Having a tent across the panniers had started to rub the coating off and where my foot caught the topbox it was starting to rub through too.

I bought some Upol Acid#8 etch primer and some Hammerite Satin Black to do the job.

The first job was to strip off the mounting brackets and locks so that I could strip off the plastikote easier and do a more thorough job in spraying the panniers.

I undid the bolts on the locks using a set of Spanners given to me by one of the members of this site. Note - these nuts and bolts had loctite on them so I heated them up. I still had to drill two out as the corrosion from the aluminium/stainless joint had seized them.

I used a flap wheel on my grinder to remove the rivets holding the mounting brackets in place. Problem was the flap wheel was a bit worn....



So I had to buy a new one....



For anyone that's not used one these are good for gently removing metal or coatings and are less abrasive than an abrasive disc.



Here I've taken the heads off the rivetts and will knock them into the panniers with a punch. You can also see I tried the flap wheel on the plastikote but thought it was removing to much aluminium.

I decided to try my wire brush on the grinder.



Think that needs replacing too....

So I tried my black and decker Mouse - which went pop....



So I bought a new wire brush...



A quick whizz round with this and then a sand with some 320 grit wet and dry left me an acceptable surface to paint. Next job was to mask it all and degrease...



I hate masking, but time spent here leaves good neat lines....







I used a small sharp craft knife to cut the tape and push it into all the corners neatly. This part of the job took me all morning. The wire brushing and sanding took me all the evening before. A good paint job needs good preparation.

Next step was to spray on the etch primer. The msds said 1-2 thin coats sprayed 3-5 mins apart followed by over coating after 20 mins.



First coat of primer going on.



Second coat done.



I used about 1 1/2 tons of etch primer to do the three boxes.

I kept looking at the paint eagerly standing there with the hammerite tin waiting for it to dry so I could put the next coat on. I decided to go and wash the car to take away the temptation of spraying whilst it wasn't dry.

The first hammerite coat was just a tack coat. Very light to give the next coats something to stick to.




I applied four coats in total slowly building the layers up. My method was the same each coat - spray the awkward areas first and then the easy bits. I alternated horizontal and vertical spraying on each coat to make sure I didn't miss anything.



After the fourth coat I waited till it went tacky and then lit the fire in the lounge to get the room nice and warm, evicted the dog from his bed in front of the fire and brought the boxes in from the garage.



Once the paint has gone off I'll remove the masking tape. This will be tomorrow. Next job will be to build them all back up. I've bought new M5x12 bolts and nuts in stainless for this. I'll try an remember to take pictures of this bit and the end result....
 
you'll need the grinder again now so you can de nib the shit out of the paint:eek:

The finish from the wire brush is quite smooth - then sanded down with wet and dry so not bad.

The panniers are not perfect - they are used and abused so a perfect paint job wasn't what I wanted. If I had I would not have used hammerite nor would I have done the job myself. Add to that that hammerite does make a fairly smooth surface as it dries and it has had four coats - it'll be fine.
 
Very nice but a huge amount of work. Have you considered vinyl wrapping the cases? Any damage is simple to replace and you can change colours for minimal costs.

Does anyone know where to get the rivets used on these cases and the tools to set them? They are far neater looking than pop rivets and smoother on the inside.
 
Very nice but a huge amount of work. Have you considered vinyl wrapping the cases? Any damage is simple to replace and you can change colours for minimal costs.

Does anyone know where to get the rivets used on these cases and the tools to set them? They are far neater looking than pop rivets and smoother on the inside.

I've tried wrapping stuff before - and this was a lot easier to do (for me) - and will be far more durable in the long run which was why I've done this - the plastikote covering was not durable enough.

I'm going to use dome head Allen bolts with dome nuts in stainless steel to replace the rivets that I have drilled out.

Next instalments next week - in waiting for the paint to harden and some sealant to arrive.

Tom
 
Paint will mark from a minor bump and touch-ups usually show. Wapping isn't uber tough but is easily replaced and it protects the metal. You will always get corrosion between the stainless fasteners and sheet aluminium so at least the paint will help to reduce alloy pitting around the screw hands.
 
The paint had hardened off nicely after being away for the week and I had ordered some sealant, M5x12 Stainless Done Head Bolts, M5 Stainless Nyloc Nuts and M5 Stainless Dome head Nuts to reassemble.

The Sealant was applied to all the lock before assembling and to the plastic trim piece before sliding down. I also redid the sealant bead at the base of the panniers as the wire brush had fetched some of it out (and the panniers already leaked)

A set of stickers from Humvee and some bargain basement handles from Nick @ Cotswold finished them off nicely.

















They look pretty good and have given me a finish in happy with.

Hammerite is easily enough obtainable that if I do mark them I can rub down that area with some wet and dry and quickly spray that area again. It won't peel off like the plastikote did. It was not fiddly to apply - I'd never have had the patience for the vinyl.
 


Back
Top Bottom