Trip Trunk Project

This story is about the acquiring and restoration of a 1976, Trip Trunk, manufactured by Bish. Less than 1000 of these were made in the late 70’s early 80’s by the Bish family in Brockway, Penn.

One of our members in Canada informed the list that he had this trunk and wanted to get rid of it cheep. Initially, I did not realize just how large this thing was. As it turned out I had to make a trip to Canada to pick it up because none of the available ground services would touch it.

After I got it home and looked over the flyers that came with it, I got on the web and started searching for the Bish family. There were phone numbers on the flyers, but I never figured they would still be active. I found a phone number on the Internet search and called one night, to find out what I could about the trunk. Much to my surprise, the family still owns one of the early Honda dealerships in the U.S. As a side business, they hand made these trunks in the rear portion of the dealership and marketed them for the Honda 750’s, early Wings, late BMW’s and Kawasaki 900 & 1000’s. They boasted just over 5 cubic feet of storage space and it retailed for $395. The original owner of the franchise and maker of the Trip Trunk is now about 80 years old. He could not remember where they got the tail and marker lights from, but he did know it was from one of the "big three".

He really loved talking about the early years, designing and making these trunks, and the many bikes he had owned. He also had a small machine shop and did some problem solving for Honda, related to a shifting problem they had with on the their machines. Honda took his design revision back to the factory and assembly line to correct future models. He started the dealership in 1960 and has now passed the franchise down to his son, who still runs the dealership today.

When I started the restoration, I discovered that it had originally been white. They only came in two colors, black and white. The PPO had partially stripped it down and painted it black.

The trunk itself was in very good shape and just needed to be completely stripped and painted. The locking latches were missing the hook portion and keys, so they were tossed and the search for replacements commenced. After stripping it, I discovered some stress cracks, mostly around the hinge areas and mounting bolt holes. So the process of routing out the cracked gel coat and repairing the cracks took the better part of two weeks. The hinge area and mounting bolt areas got a couple of extra layers of heavy fiberglass as reinforcement. With the trunk came some very heavy bumpers marketed as add ons by a completely different company. They are chrome plated 1/4" steel. The weight of them on the trunk actually warped the fiberglass around where they had been mounted so, I decided not to put them back on. After plugging all the holes except for the tail light openings, I started priming and prepping the trunk for painting. About half way though prepping, I found a local body shop that would take on the job of prepping and painting. He does quite a bit of custom work to bikes and expressed a serious interest in restoring the trunk. So for a very reasonable price, he finished out and painted the trunk to match my black Wing’s side cover.

The original tail lights worked just fine, but the side marker lenses had cracked and warped from the hot bulbs and had to be replaced. After a lengthy search and the careful watching of vehicles on the road, I finally found a very close match to the side markers, from a 1988 Ford van. I bought two new ones from the dealer at $10.00 each. I would have gladly paid twice that to find a match this close. In searching for the locking latches, I finally posted a search to the list and a member in Texas located a barrel of them with keys. They were a perfect size match and the difference in style was not an issue. I was just happy to find something that would fit the recesses in the trunk and lock.

It took the paint shop about two weeks to finish the trunk. The paint is so black, it looks like black mirror. It still needs buffed out and I was put in contact with a guy who may be able to stripe it to match the gold on my Wing. The inside is being finished out with the liquid rubber coating used in truck beds. All the hardware is mounted with stainless steel fasteners and The trunk is held by four steel brackets with ten main mountings on rubber sealing grommets with stainless steel bolts and locking nuts. The four irons are mounted to the bike at four places; the passenger foot pegs and just behind the rear seat mounting bolts. The entire rear fender assembly is removed and this trunk replaces it. It took an entire day to fit the trunk to my Wing. After that it should only take about 30 minutes to switch back and forth and I can do it by myself. I can’t believe how close the fit is.

On one of our first times out, riding two up, we heard a strange crunching sound as we went over a dip in the road. The next day, I washed the bike and notice that the tab on the left side of the 78’s swing arm had punched a 2" slot through the trunk. It fits that close. So now, the bobbed swing arm could be mistaken for a 76’s and when the body guy buffs out the paint, I’m hoping I can get him to touch up my fiberglass patch. Someday, I would like to take a day trip out to PA, find the dealership where this came from and show off mine.

Following are a few of the many pics taken during the restoration.
(to view larger images click on the thumbnail images)

The scans here are of the flyers which came with the Trip Trunk.

Here are a couple of pics, just after getting it home. At this point the wife is not really thrilled with it, especially in the living room.

Here the top section of the trunk is removed, leaving just the base, which remains mounted to the bike. And the other pic gives a general idea of the storage space of just the base. And even though it has this much space, it is actually narrower than a typical set of 8" side bags.

During the first week of January, we got a break in the winter weather. It got above 40 degrees, so the stripping began. I used a stripper made for taking paint off of fiberglass. I bought a gallon and only used about 3/4 of it for all 4 pieces, inside and out. Some places required 3 to 4 applications of stripper to get down through the black paint and original white to gel coat. The cold weather may have slowed the stripper, but that was preferred over the warm sun baking it on the black.

After stripping, I discovered the stress cracks in the gel coat. They were mainly around all the holes. Using a Dremel tool with a 1/8" ball burr, I routed out the cracked gel coat and repaired them with a fiberglass finishing resin. Clear tape was placed over the filled repairs to keep the resin from flowing out. This one pic is of the hinge area of the base lid. It seemed to be the worst. The material here was very thin, 3/32" max., so in all the hinge areas the thickness was reinforced to about 1/4" thickness.

Here the top half lid is being repaired at the hinge area. It appeared as though numerous attempts to correctly position the hinges resulted in way too many holes and no structural strength at all. So the entire corner was removed. Strips of card stock were used to reform the corners and fiberglass was laid in. Then about four layers of 7/8 ounce fiberglass cloth was laid on the inside and about two layers on the outside for reinforcement.

Here the top half lid is primed and this is where I was when I contracted my local body shop to finish out the pieces.

The next couple of pics are after it comes back from the body shop and all the hardware is mounted. It was painted with a urethane base automotive paint. The paint was still very green when I brought it home so I let it set for about 36 hours before fitting the hardware. Keeping my hands off the finish was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. There are minor imperfections in the paint and a couple of runs, one being in the wheel well and is impossible to see, but the painter said that after all the hardware is mounted, he will buff it all out and prep it for the custom painter to stripe.
The inside has yet to be finished in these pics, because I had not decided how I wanted to finish it out. Initially I want to do a diamond pattern "tuck and rolled" interior with marine vinyl, but attaching it was a major problem. I did not want any more holes and if the inside became wet for whatever reason, getting it completely dried out would be almost impossible.

Here the fitting of the trunk to the irons begins. The entire rear fender assembly is removed. The irons are bolted to the passenger foot pegs and the though holes just behind the seat mount bolts. I had to remove the two tabs which exteneded below the helmet lock mounts. They really gouged the paint and prevented the trunk from being leveled up. If you look real close you may be able to see the damage, but with the seat on it’s impossible to see.

After the trunk is initially fit, it can be removed and replaced by just one person, as long as it’s empty. The wiring harness has matching colors to the Wings plug-ins. And once I figured out that I had the ground and (+) reversed, everything lit up nicely. That was at 1:30 a.m., it was dark and long past my bedtime. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The next morning was bright, sunny and my day off, so I went to the auto parts house and picked up a quart of that liquid rubber, truck bed liner coating, to do the inside.

I would like to thank you all very much for your interest in this project and when the striping is completed and the trunk buffed out, I will post the pics for you to enjoy.

Once the Trip Trunk was on the bike and the wife and I went for a short ride, she fell in love with it. She loves the way it looks now and could never have imagined it looking this nice. I think it looks sort of retro and finishes the lines started by the Vetter fairing. The Wing does not handle any different and I can’t tell it’s back there. I have yet to load it down, but I was told by the designer that a test was done to see what it would handle and the loaded their test trunk with quart cans of oil. The test riders could not tell anything was back there and the Trunk never gave any undesirable weight shifts. So I’m anxious to give it a try and pack it up for a weekend outing.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

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