Building me some Dakar panniers!

Right, so we're off to Le Mans on the bikes. Me mates got some soft sporty throw over panniers for his NC30, so I need some hard alu panniers for the Dakar. Ive got a massive piece of 3mm thick alu kick plate which used to be the floor of my late Tranny Van (1995 - 2010, R.I.P.), so that will be the panniers.

Started out by cutting up the kick plate flooring into 40x45 panels, for the sides of the panniers. Then a load of 23x40 for the front and back panels, and 23x45 for the bottom panel. 

Once I had all the panels, I cut up a load of pre-drilled 'L' section for the corners. Bit o' no more nails lathered on stuck the l section to the panels no problem, let that dry for a day and then drilled them.

Once the basic parts were assembled and was in a box shape for the first time, I strapped it to the bike to see what the shape would look like. It does look pretty big but compared to stuff on the net, the overall dims are about correct, and there are some others that look ever bigger than these!

This is pretty much one finished, apart from the lid! and oh wait, i still need to make the other one! I am goin to be busy!