On the way to the Imbil Rally as I pulled out from a rear end in park spot, I cranked the bike over and I didn't get my left foot up fast enough. My foot hit the road and flicked up I didn't think much about it until thirty metres later my pannier decided to launch itself down the road. Even though the pannier was locked on the impact from my foot had unhitched it. As Mick and Matt can attest it suffered quite a bit of scratching and gouging. Matt kindly offered me another pannier, but I said I might be able to restore it.

Once back from the rally I didn't have a lot of time to do anything as I had to undergo minor surgery on the Monday after the rally. I had a quick go with 100 grit on my orbital sander and this got most of the heavy gouged and scratches out. I finally got back to it today after being banned from the workshop and the bike for a week. I switched to 240 grit on the orbital sander and got more of the scratches out. I couldn't get any finer grades for the orbital sander so switched to a sanding block for the flat surfaces and used my hand for the corners.  I started with 400 then switched to 800 and finished with 1500.
 
I then used cutting compound with the orbital sander with a lambskin buff followed by PlastX Polish on a new buff. This was followed by Turtle wax colour cure in black applied and buffed by hand. Final finish was with Surf city Black Max which was put on reasonably thick and allowed to dry before hand buffing. I've taken out minor pannier scratches before but nothing this bad. I can see a couple of minor scratches that I'll fix in the future. I'm pretty happy with the result to the point where I'll have to now do the right hand one to match. Unfortunately in my haste to see whether I could get out the gouges I didn't take a piccie of the gouges. All up the job took around 4 hours. Tomorrow I'm going to make some wooden patterns that can be used as a lock so that the panniers cannot be dislodged by accident. I can hopefully cast in aluminium on Tuesday. I'll post the process on another post.
Regards Martin.

Those are system 3 panniers.

The lock on to the Z rail is rivetted to the pannier. Check those rivets. They are easy to replace and if the lock is loose, do it. I had a similar experience but decided before moving to check the lock and discovered the rivets broken so I replaced them. BMW do actually sell a rivet kit, one kit for all the rivets on a pannier.

Second thing is was yours actually locked on tot he  Z rail? If not locked they can dislodge easily.

92KK 84WW Olaf wrote:.....
Second thing is was yours actually locked on tot he  Z rail? If not locked they can dislodge easily.....

Ditto that. I had one come off in the city one day. I was lucky it didn't get damaged. They tend to dislodge easily when they're empty. Had to replace those rivets recently also. They look a little small so I used larger ones.

It was full and locked and the rivets are fine.  I had to unlock it to get it back on. Once I make the locking blocks it will never come off again. The force from my foot kicking it must have some how forced it off.
Regards Martin.

I get mine coated in Line-X truck bed liner.  They're very scratch resistant.  I knocked one off on a truck bumper while filtering at a stop light in San Francisco and you can't even tell.

I thought about painting them or using Bed Liner. However I wanted to see if I could restore them and what it would take to do it. Line-X is available in OZ, did they do all the prep and how far did you have to strip them? And what did it cost?
Regards Martin.

It's actually a fair amount of work.  I removed the scuff pads, locks and emblem/reflector.  (Removing the scuff pads without tearing them is challenging.) I used blue painters tape to tape off the hinge on the bottom, emblems and scuff pad areas. Then once I had them coated, since the Line-X stuff is 1/16" thick and pretty tough, I cut off the painters tape with an Exacto knife.  Around the lips for the emblems and scuff pad perimeters I then used a Dremel sanding bit for finishing touches. To put the scuff pads back on I used a caulking gun tube of roofing tar since I figured it was a strong waterproof adhesive. I also sanded the perimeter lip where it hits the rubber seal of the inner half since it's a bit too thick with Line-X applied.

Can't remember the cost as I did it a while ago.

Thanks Duck I have used similar bed liner on my belly pan. I did find that the bed liner didn't like degreaser and dissolved when a bit found it's way onto the surface. I found a medical supply place that had a stock of old style scalpel blades along with really huge cotton buds (Q tips). The blades were really good when it came time to remove the tape. Next time I'm down there I must buy some more.
Regards Martin.

You probably know this but there's a big difference between rattle can bed liner you can buy at an auto parts store and Line-X.   I tried some of the rattle can stuff on a K100RS belly pan and it didn't last at all. Line-X, on the other hand, is a two part material similar to epoxies and they use a special dual sprayer to mix it as it's applied.

(Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Line-X. I am just a happy customer.)