Aluminium Pannier Cleaning

I Ride my Triple Black throughout the winter completely treated with ACF 50 with no signs of corrosion, however, the aluminium panniers are getting really stained and grubby. Any special tricks to clean them?

baby oil? ;)
 
You could always get them powder coated but you'd need to strip them down to the component parts so lots of rivet reaming and bolts to undo so you'd have a base, body and lid.

Lots of work doing that and you'd have hours of fun putting them back together again with nice shiny stainless fasteners.

You'd have a unique look aswell!:thumb
 
Check with Vines - they have a vinyl wrap contact.

But has anyone tried Mer?

Obviously not.

So I'll have a go with it and see how I get on. (My panniers, being eighteen months old, are already looking a bit messed up so move nothing to lose by trying Mer).
 
Spent last night dismantling the top box - what a PITA, stupid tiny nuts.

Had a go at covering the top but made a complete hash of it - I think since I was in the garage it was too cold and the vinyl wasn't supple enough and I thought I'd try with just a credit card to smooth - this didn't work so well. Moved it all in to the Kitchen today (will no doubt invoke the wrath of SWMBO) so it can warm up a bit and will try again over the weekend. You DEFINITELY need one of the felt edged squeegy things which arrived today, and a tonne of patience... (oh and some extra vinyl for when you FU)
 
You really need two people to do vinyl wrapping, one to hold the heat gun and one to do the wrap, you often need to hold the vinyl while you shrink it and one hand is not enough to stop it flapping when it gets warm and flexible. If the sticky sides get together it's game over, like brown parcel tape.
I wrapped the tank on the new GSA, took two failed attempts and a few small piece practice bits to get it down (especially the GS logo on the tank sides), third and fourth were keepers (did each side separately)
Since then I've done a Lancia Stratos wrap, and that was a bugger, deep curves had the vinyl tight as a drum in some parts.
Take it slowly, never pull the vinyl back off the surface when it's warm, be careful not to work bubbles into ridges or corners as it stretches the vinyl and you'll never get the bubble out without taking a decent patch off and shrinking the whole lot back to normal.
 
Top box lid done, half way through top box. It definitely makes a huge difference doing it in the warm. Get a HUGE supply of scalpels!!

I'm definitely getting better and faster but you couldn't pay me enough to go through this again on someone else's!!
 
I'm definitely getting better and faster but you couldn't pay me enough to go through this again on someone else's!!

Don't say that! I'm just up the road from you, and was going to ask you to do mine for me.:D
 
There's no way I'm doing this again. My wife says I've been a grumpy B'stard since I started lol. It's just boring and fiddly as fcuk, I'm not even trying to make it 'that' perfect, I realised pretty quickly that just wasn't going to happen. They do look smart though.

The lids are the worst bit, that and putting the catches back on.
 
There's no way I'm doing this again. My wife says I've been a grumpy B'stard since I started lol. It's just boring and fiddly as fcuk, I'm not even trying to make it 'that' perfect, I realised pretty quickly that just wasn't going to happen. They do look smart though.

The lids are the worst bit, that and putting the catches back on.

Lotusmartin

Thanks for going through the pain barrier on this one. The results look great fella, i fancy doing this but on the basis that the better half already says i'm a grumpy B'tard and i have no patience, i will look for another way, as i cant afford a divorce. How scuff resistant will the lids be to your boots do you think?


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