Using bed liner to fix case lids?

[Penrod]

I have thought about the prospect of using the truck-bedliner (Line-X and Rhino coating)stuff to coat/fix the side case lids. I even found a guy on this forum that said he did the very thing, but I could not get a reply to my p.m. Has anyone here seen or done that?

[Penrod]

I guess I should specify just what I would be fixing: The scratches that I have all over the face of the lids. I'm looking to do more than just "fix" it, I want to do something that would prevent the damage from occuring in the firstplace.

[Yeeha! Stephen]

Byron Lawrence (Trinity)in Dallas, has done that very thing on his 1150 GS. Works very well in my opinion. Was looking his bags again last night. Might try it on my own if I don't paint them a color match. Might contact him for the brand he used... I forgot.

 

[Mike O]

If you find a particular brand, could you please post it in this thread?

 

Thanks

 

Mike O

[AndyS]

What am I meant to be looking for in your picture?

Andy

[E30TECH]

What am I meant to be looking for in your picture?

Andy

 

Looks like he painted the cases with the rhino liner or speed liner

[Trinity]

Wish I could take credit for the idea, but the bags were sprayed by the first owner of the bike. The brand of paint used is black "Dupli-Color" brand Truck Bed Coating. In our part of the world, it's available in 16.5 oz. spray cans from Wal-Mart. (Note: When I bought a spare can, I had to show my ID at the self check out. Guess they wanted to be sure I was old enough to sniff it properly... )

 

I personally like the look and the finish IS durable. (As you can see, from more than a couple of feet away, it looks almost like the standard bag finish.) The bonus of this treatment is that if you happen to get any scuff marks on 'em, it's easy to do a quick touch-up and it blends perfectly.

[Penrod]

Trinity, since I was going to have the lids done at one of the bed liner places, just how "durable" is the finish? The bed liner stuff I've seen is rock hard and durable, so as long as it stay s attached to the surface I would no longer worry about foot scrapes or whatever else is scratching my lids. On the otherhand, if the spay-it-on-yourself stuff is pretty durable, and I'm sure a lot less cost wise, I would lean that way. If you drag your boot over it getting off the bike, would it scratch like the original surface?

[Jim VonBaden]

I painted an entire KLR with it, and it looked great, and was VERY tough stuff.

 

Jim

[Trinity]

The spray can solution HAS to be cheaper than a specialized bed liner shop and IMHO, a slight boot drag wouldn't show. A serious boot drag or drop might mar things a bit; however, a quick shot of more bed liner will cover it up seamlessly.

 

Oh yeah, be sure to cover up or remove the levers/locking parts when you're applying the coating. You don't want to get those gummed up.

[co_g30]

if all you're dealing with is boot scuff marks and such, something that's worked for me is black heel dressing. The kind you use to dress up or freshen up black-heeled shoes. I just rub it on, blends nicely, makes the scuff marks dissapear or at least harder to see.

 

ymmv

 

dom

[szurszewski]

Trinity, since I was going to have the lids done at one of the bed liner places, just how "durable" is the finish?

 

Back when I was finishing up my teaching credentials and was too poor to afford a "real" spray-on liner (wait - I'm still too poor...dang!) I painted the bed of our truck with the Duplicolor stuff. That was back in '01 and the stuff has held up pretty well - the only places where it's worn through are where we keep our tool box, folding table, cooler and camp box strapped down. During the summers since '01 we've lived in/out of our truck traveling, so that stuff gets slid in/out a couple times a day, and has ground against the liner/bed for about 60,000 miles.

 

I also painted the tops of the rails (and down to the top crease on the bed sides) as well as the exterior of the tailgate. We have a couple good size dogs that jump up/over that tail gate and are constantly clawing it when doing so - the stuff has held up to their scratches very well. It has also held up well on the rail tops/under the canopy (or "topper" for those of you on the east coast).

 

That is all to say, yeah, I think it would do fine on bag lids (planning to add it to mine this summer in fact) and it's a matter of $15 vs whatever they'd charge you to spray it. (I think I paid about $100 for the goo and all associated materials and prep checmicals, plus a can for touch up, when I did the truck bed.)

 

As always, YMMV - good luck!

[mefly2]

Great idea here! Thanks.

[Penrod]

Boot scuffs are minor but acceptable. what I have are horizontal scratches that are very noticeable and unsightly. The frustrating part is I don't know how I got them.

 

szurszewski - thanks for the feed back, just what I wanted to know/hear.