The Great Hard Luggage Restoration Thread Saddlebags and Trunk

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.










































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










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.

 

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


I will have to get some pics of them mounted to the bike.

~Ghost

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

here are just some truck photos.

 

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

 

polishing some scratches out of the reflectors

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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








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)





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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Just a tease. So much more to do.

 

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

 

some results, after starting to cut and buff these out

 

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.




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

 

i wanted to keep as much of stock looks as possible. fortunatly between the two bags i had a good idea of what they once looked like and included. and my trunk was in better shape though has some bad scrapes in it. from factory there is a double pin stripe, thick and thin going around the permimiter. yamaha did this with a printer sticker, meaning colored ink/paint(some kind of pigment) on the inside of a clear substrate and cut to size. the shape was not applied but rather cut that way and stuck on. I didnt have a good way to recreate that, so i elected to go wtih a more tradional pin stripe tape, but kept the metallic gold color. i was able to find a double stripe about the correct size, 1/8 and 1/16 stripes, but it has an 1/8 seperation. and i needed a 1/16 spacing, which i couldnt find. so out came the scisors to split it in half.



to lay out the striping i used 1/16in fineline tape to get my placement.



then lay my metailics on either side to maintain spacing



peal away to goodness



I had my local sign shop cut some decals for me. again the orginals were sticker but i maintiained the sizes and placement with my vinyls



I wanted to tie in my newly color matched fairing to the rest and continued the striping playing on the orginal placement of the fatory rooster decals. and the XJ750 at the end i rather enjoy. the windshield i made a new gasket and upgraded the harward to nylon washers (had to dye those black) and stanless screws.

 

now on to the fine details.

from factory there are a couple stickers. one for the lock mechanisim and a warning label. on the bags they were practicaly gone but my trunk had decent ones. I made reproductions of them myself using laster printer and specal bumper sticker paper. they are water proof and i am please with how they came out wtih a caveat. The caution sticker is supposed to be metalic. i looked into having some made but that didnt work out. then i found a great method for making them. print them with a laser, then get silver leaf foil. place on top and run through a lamenator. the toner melts againe and the leaf sticks to it and you peal away to reveal only the silver where the toner was. i was excited because this process works perfectly on paper. by that i mean like regual paper, even that fine detail. but with the bumper sticker paper the laminator heats up the plastic too cuasing the oil leaf to just stick to the entire sticker solid silver. i expieremented pleanty, but any way to heat the toner enough to stick the silver would heat the plastic too. so I went wtih jsut black print. i expierement with some grayscale stuff but nothign looked right so black it is. the lock sticker however, is almost dead on.

happy to share my file if anyone wants to print their own.

 

inside the bags also required some detail work. there are elastic straps with chrome hooks. i had about 4in of elastic left in one bag and a single chrome hook as an example. the rest all rotted away. new elastic was easy, but the hooks? here is a place where i really feel i could have done better but i tried and they work. i bough some mirrored stainless sheeet metal and bent my own basic hooks. i shoul have built a buck for it to make them more uniform and crisp. but also the elastic had to go in with the hinges as they share a mount, so attaching them in bag was challenging. i should have done the hooks first.



see that plastic pouch there? that is factory.

and here is a chunk of foam i suspect is to protect the inside of the door? IDK i only had 1 of each of these. so I cut 2 new foams, pictured here. which was easy enough, but then i needed to make another pouch thing.

 

i picked up some black ABS vaccu form plastic. but i dont have a vacuform. so i layed the door down (pre paint) lined it wtih foil. layed my ABS on top and went to town with a heat gun, welding gloves and spary bottlle of water.

paitientce, tiral and error and it worked out pretty good. certainly not factory nor identicle but it fulfills its purpose. and i trimed it a little too short. but it did pull off the curves pretty well.

 

inside the trunk i sewed some straps to the brackets go a few buckles and finished the ends of the strap wtih chrome bits

 

thats it for all the detail stuff.

here is a group of pics of the finished luggage.

 

last post wtih final thoughts. i wish the aluminium was nicer. i attempted to polish, wet sad with various grits, products. and well it cleaned them well and it got brighter but the only way to get rid of that damage would be to cover it up. meaning to paint it or recoat it. i didnt think it would turn out too great or last and decided to leave it as is. maybe that was mistake. i am sure somthing could be done, but i had already put too much time and money into this and i made the decsion to leave it. maybe someday it will bother me enough to change my mind.

currently the bag bodies are water tight but the main seam is not, where the two halfves come togheter. the gaskest are very worn. it is 4mm wide, 2mm thick rubber. which i cant find so i think will be cutting my own, or trying something clever with silicone. so that still needs to happen. but first i need to clean my garage and take a break from this project. so i wont ride in the rain i guess. i am impressed how tight they mount and they dont rattle. and on the road areo wise well you feel them but no worse than just the trunk. i fear the cracks may come back over time, or new ones form. i fixed them correctly but the nature of the beast i think its invetiable. I have more faom too and thinking of lining the bottoms to avoid stuff bouncing around and doing damage. and the exhaust is pretty close, so far so good, but if the paint starts to cook i will put some stick on heat shield there.

Here is a before wtih the trunk.




and a bunch of afters. it was cloudy today and the color hard to capture but again its close not perfect but in this case it looks better in person than pictures colorwise. But overall pictures make things look nicer than they are and i assure you there are painting mistakes in there. but they hide OK. and last pre qualifier, that fairing is not true, as in not square or true to anything, so doing the decal and plastic trim comes down to doing the best you can. and the headlight bucket gets tweaked when its mounted. but i guess thats 80s quality there.

 

That looks awesome, and your attention for details is impeccable!
Alan

 

Looking good.....FYI---- the thin foam insert doesn't belong in the door. It is the 'floor' of the saddlebag. The straps come up through it.

 

I would love a copy of the decal file. Will send a private conversation

Dave

 

I appreciate the info. That makes sense and was thinking of doing the floor in foam. When they came to me that's where it was. But the shape did seem odd.

I will move them down.


And thanks for the compliments all. I am generally pleased with the outcome.

 

I think the reason why the headlight bucket gets tweakd when the fariring is installed is that fairing really wasn't meant to fit square-light motorcycles.
Whoever decided to market it as a universal fairing wasn't thinking (it was designed and produced after Vetter sold the fairing business).

The bags look sooooo good.

 

That looks fantastic! Great work. I've used Eastwoods plastic restorer extensively, I can't say how it holds up long term but might bring some "bling" back to your plastic parts.

 

what you see of the plastics is after being treated wtih back to black. maybe not that good, i cant say. but a it is a product designed for that purpose i fear that is as good as they get. i even dyed the handels and that only helped some.

 

They definitely don't look bad, just thought I would mention. Not sure how it would hold up to the interior but I've used on controls and gauge cover and seems to hold up to my gloved hands so far.

 

i might give it a try. couldnt hurt.

 

Nice Work! Those bags look great on your bike!
Thanks for the great write up!

FYI on the pinstripe. Any amount of heat like the 90+ temps down there friday (I was in Tampa) will loosen the adhesive on the stripes. You might want to clear over them to keep them from peeling.

Could you give a source for the rivets?

 

perhaps on the pin stripe. i will keep it in mind. in the past i have burried my decals in clear and its a nice result. however it wasnt possible for me to do layout during the paint process. i guess i could have waited and cleared after, but fear reactions or funy buisness. i figured it would be safer to lay them on top since i couldnt do them all same day. and factory was on top so i justified it that way. true i could clear them now, but to do it proper i would have to break down the bags again and i dont see that happening. i do use and recomend only 3m striping tapes and masking tapes for that matter. i have had good luck in other projects, and here in the waste of ND high temps like that are rare but do happen. time will tell, worst case reapply and reacess.


rivents. the semi tublar ones had to come from china only source i coudl find. i wanted stainless but only button heads came stainless flat head was alum only. they are M4 and i bout 20mm and 10mm. i did have to hand modify a couple to make work.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017ON9PGK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018RT4OO8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

i though about geting rivet tools for my airhammer but again china only for anything reasonable or grind my own. but first i bought the cheapest tool i could find

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DPM6WDE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and i just used that and did it with a hammer. not that many anyways.

the poprivets i went with stainless. if you only have the basic handriveter go alum, these are tuff unless you have the long handle style. I however have the cheaper harborfrieght pneumatic rivet gun which works awesome. factory uses the type with the closed end, which i could only find in alum. so these are standard pop rivets. and i put a dab of silicone inside hollow of each after setting.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171040803926?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171040804533?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

If you do, watch ebay. Eastwood sells their stuff there as well and you can catch it for ~30% cheaper than usual.

 

I moved the foam to the bottom, makes more sense and they fit. I think I'll cut one for the trunk. Still haven't cleaned garage. Then it's time to make them water tight

 

You are making me want to fix my Yamaha trunk and fairing. That displeases me to no end lol

 

Factory fairing with all the side pieces? That has lockable storage right? But no factory radio option?

 

Mine is the sport fairing. No storage at all. No lowers. And in the case of mine, in need of some reconstruction.

 

I have:

Windjammer--has storage

X1--has storage, has lowers

A different Big OEM Yamaha fairing for XJ's-- has storage, not able to to obtain lowers yet

Several sets of luggage......

But only the widjammer has provision for stereo equipment

 

The only radio option that I recall Yamaha having for the XJ750 (aside from the police model) was bar mounted, and that was for the Maxim.

 

I didn't know there was even an option...... Happen to have a pic?

 

Wow, all those pipes, you could have made a Ducati

 

You know what; I'm thinking of the Music in Motion setup. Not a Yamaha produced item, but I know it was offered at some dealerships.
Unless I'm even more wrong, the only factory radio I can think of was for the Venture and Venture Royale.

 

X-1 Fairing. Storage, and lowers. No radio. XJ mount. 83 750 Midnight Maxim Tour Deluxe
Maxim Sport fairing. XJ fork mount. 82 750 Maxim w/Bates bags
Virago 920 fairing, Storage, radio, and lowers. Bolts onto XJ frame mount. Will be looking for an 1100 to put this on eventually

Still waiting for good pics to properly ID this fairing.

Either Music in Motion, or possibly a Cycle Sound system.

XS1100 Silverbird Fairing, and XV920 Virago fairing were factory equipped with radios also.

 

Here's a couple different ones.... The only differences are:

1. I still need to locate a set of lowers

2. I don't have the windshield yet, and a few other OEM parts


There are also a couple 750 midnight maxims out there that I've seen in my searches