How to Customize Fiberglass Saddlebags
If you have a set of old fiberglass saddlebags lying around, or the bags on your bike, are showing many miles, here is one option. Cover them in vinyl.
Back a couple of years ago, I restored my 68 flh, and was getting down to finishing the restoration, with one of the last things being the fiberglass saddlebags. My fiberglass saddlebags looked so bad I was thinking of tossing them out and just buying new ones. I had the lids fly off a couple of times, so they were already bon-do’d to the point of no return. The bottom bodies were in fair shape, but the bottom clamp hardware was shot, on both sides.
I started doing some pricing for a new set of bags, even thinking of going to all leather, but the soft bags just would not look rite if I kept the original bag rails. After pricing new fiberglass bags, and having them custom painted, I was over my budget. Then I ran into a friend of mine who was sporting a set of hard bags that looked like leather. He had them covered in vinyl, down at the upholstery shop for around 180 bucks. Now this sounded like a good option to me, so I headed on down to my local upholstery shop for some pricing and options.
I found out the color, and pattern options are endless, and affect the price. I decided to go with black in color, I think there where around 20 different black patterns. I was able to match a pattern to my seat. The price for the job, without hardware $210.00, turn around time around two weeks.
Now for the hardware, where do you find hardware for fiberglass saddlebags, you guessed it you search the internet! I found the hardware at J&P Cycles, cost around $180.00, and the installation was easy.
You can also take the customize job to another level by doing a rhino-type liner to the inside of the fiberglass bags. If you do this, you want to do it before the upholstery job.
