Originally Posted by
SpedFast
You can buy spray cans of material waterproofing, but my experience with them on PVC hasn't been the greatest. It turned my bright red panniers pink and lasted less than a season. I made my own solution with paint thinner and pure silicone, but once again, PVC doesn't absorb so it went flaky after a while and now they look like, well we won't go there. Good luck. If they were laminated and the thin laminate has worn through, there probably won't be much you can do with them. But keep us posted on anything suggested or tried, TIA
I was going to suggest that treatment, but why wouldn't you treat the inside of the ortleib pannier? It looks like that is where the old coating is on these pannier in the pictures. Were your panniers fabric with a coating like the pictures or slick PVC on both sides? I wouldn't expect the silicone to take well on slick PVC.
I recall way back when I had a tent floor that had the coating go bad and peel. It also smelled really bad. The manufacturer suggested running it through the washing machine a few times to get he old coating off before recoating using silicone caulk thinned with paint thinner. I never got rid of the stink so I didn't bother recoating and just retired the tent. I do not know how well the recoating will work over top of the old layer of peeling coating. If the alternative is retiring the panniers it may be worth a try. If it was me I'd go with a pretty thin mixture and try to get it to soak in well. Maybe try a small area to see how it applies. Also maybe experiment with trying to peel off as much of the old coating as possible.
Maybe you could coat the outside if it is fabric, but that isn't the typical way to go. It might take better, but it might be ugly. Test a small area to see how it goes.