System Case Q

[kroberts]

I've been reading up on system case skin repairs and refinishing. All the threads I've read talk about wet-sanding with increasingly finer grit papers etc, etc. This leads me to believe that these cases are smooth skinned with gloss finishes.

My cases are scratched and I want to dress them up a little. My case surfaces have a texture to them. Sort of a fine pebble finish in a matte black. Nothing smooth and glossy about these.

Are/were there different surface finishes or are mine those chinese knock-offs?

I read a thread somewhere (not here) about a guy using aerosol spray truck bed liner. Not quite sure what to think about that. Anyone ever seen some done up like that?

[brentw1]

they should have a rough textured exterior on the lids,
the inside of shells are smooth.

[daweise1]

I did not do it to mine, but I have a friend locally that did... He loves it as they don't scratch, and he is happy with it. Lasts forever too...
Looks.... I don' t care for it myself, but it looks exactly as you would think Bedliner would on cases.. I think of mine as riding beautiful rolling art, and it just looked wrong to me...
For a rear end that nice, I think more thong than "lumpy grandma panties"....

[PFFOG]

Most of the scratches on mine were very light, what I would call normal wear and tear. I refinished the lids with Krylon plastic paint. I took off ant high spots with a scotchbrite pad, wiped them down with some enamel reducer, and gave them a couple coats. !00% improvement.

As for the bed liner, I agree that it does not look great. My wife's F650 had the aluminum skinned lids, and being short, she has fallen over from time to time. The covers were pretty beat up and dented. I pulled them off and pounded out the dents, and gave them a couple coats of bed liner. Neither of us particularly liked the black, so I painted over the liner to make them look "aluminum" again. This was great for a really banged up surface, but for light scratches and scuffs, personally I would feel it would not be an improvement.

[GDM]

Not recommending this and I have not tried it personally but if a matte coat is what you are looking for have you thought of Plasti-dip?

This is making the rounds on another site and by all accounts is removable
.

Gerry

[twitchy]

It's funny this comes up. Like the dope I can sometimes be, I have opened my saddle bag to get something out and forgot to put the handle back down and lock it onto the bike. I have been lucky a few times and because the bags had weight in them it did not come off on the road. The last time I did it, I wasn't so lucky. The bag did come off and slid down the road at 50mph. I stopped to do an errand and when I got out of the store to put what I bought in that saddlebag, it wasn't there. I rode back to where I had ridden and found the bag. It was only a little scratched and didn't look like it went through what it did. I was lucky I was even able to find it and that no one ran it over. I felt bad because my bike doesn't have any damage or scratches on it.

I wanted to get the scratches out, but because they have a textured finish I wasn't sure how they would look. I first wet sanded with 320 grit. Then I wet sanded again with 400 grit. Finally I wet sanded with 600 grit. After that I polished with S100 plastic polish. They look very similar to the system cases I had on my K75s.
They aren't textured anymore, but you would never know that it fell off the bike at any speed.
I personally wouldn't paint them or put any finish on them. Someone I know also suggested truck bed liner paint. That has a purpose, but not for something as delicate and visual as a saddle bag cover.

[kroberts]

Thanks for all the input.