View Full Version : Painting forks?
I've had a bit of a search around the forum, found a thread from near on 3 years ago now but if anyone has any extra into thatd be cool.
Basically, though i would love it so bad, a gsxr front end replacement is a bit out of my league financially and wayyy out technically speaking. But the stock Silver/Grey forks on my black 08 pointy are annoying the hell out of me. ( as well as the wheels, but that can wait until another day).
Im thinking i'll go with trying to paint them, i already have some self etch primer, a small amount of colour match black bodywork paint and some laquer.
So....what do!?
The Primer is suitable for metal, but is the paint? and would i need to put the laquer on after?
I dont want to take the forks off, since i dont really need to, i dont want to tempt fate and allow something to go wrong, im already reluctant about taking off the wheel/front fairing.
So, any advice with it? Is the paint going to hold up against normal road use?
Millions of questions i know, but any help would be very greatfully recieved!!
Thanks
I sprayed my curvy forks over the winter, and my silver wheels too, as the paint was very poor, forks had been hand painted. took out front wheel, removed mudguard and wrapped chrome fork legs in paper, masked up, and covered engine and calipers, wet flatted, sprayed, primer, then done a dark met grey, then clear coated.
reassembled next day, job done
i use my bike daily, and since january this year, seems fine so far.
I sprayed my curvy forks over the winter, and my silver wheels too, as the paint was very poor, forks had been hand painted. took out front wheel, removed mudguard and wrapped chrome fork legs in paper, masked up, and covered engine and calipers, wet flatted, sprayed, primer, then done a dark met grey, then clear coated.
reassembled next day, job done
i use my bike daily, and since january this year, seems fine so far.
exactly what i was looking for.
thanks alot!
what paint did you use? i've seen talk of satin black from halfords or somerthing similar!
Halfords is expensive, i use duplicolor from The Range, about £3.50 a can i think, be careful with the clear coat, its very easy to spray too much and get paint sag.
dirtydog
02-05-11, 08:29 PM
I painted the forks on my curvy a few years ago. Got it up on a stand, took the front wheel, mudguard etc off. Masked up the bits i didn't want painted and them sprayed them with some silver paint from Halfords.
Got it all done in one day.
thanks! its sounding a little less intimidating already! :)
I need to do mine too. They are pitted on my K8 worse than they were on my K6 and they had 6k more on them.
I also want to do my bottom yoke as that is showing rust spots too.
I will be watching this thread wth interest.
Nobbylad
02-05-11, 08:42 PM
Basically, though i would love it so bad, a gsxr front end replacement is a bit out of my league financially and wayyy out technically speaking.
If you take your time scouting for a front end, you can make money on the swap and it's not technically difficult.
If you take your time scouting for a front end, you can make money on the swap and it's not technically difficult.
not technically difficult? it does seem it to me! especially the speedo issues, i have been browsing round the conversion thread as they pop up but not paid intimate attention to it.
Bear in mind this is my first bike aswell, and im not really mechanically minded!
Its something to consider in the future definately, since at the moment im nowhere near pushing the bike/myself far enough to need to upgrade the suspension/brakes etc.
At the moment its only really cosmetic!
BBadger
02-05-11, 09:01 PM
I need to do mine too. They are pitted on my K8 worse than they were on my K6.
Mine are going abit to...later models seem to go abit quicker aswell like the water pump/thermostat housing on yours tony has gone aswell ( not being picky or anything though ;) )
my only problem is getting the front end off the ground and keeping it secure while its up there.
It's so easy to remove the fork legs, and it makes it far easier to remove the old paint and apply the new so why wouldn't you do it? Leaving them on is just making work for yourself, not saving it IMO.
madandy
03-05-11, 11:35 AM
if i were you i'd polish my forks
painting them may be the easier option but after a year or a few months if your riding on the road they will start pitting again
took me 4 hours to polish mine and they were bad
then again i do have a monster of a polishing station
Nobbylad
03-05-11, 12:22 PM
Gixer front end...doesn't need painting or polishing.
dirtydog
03-05-11, 12:24 PM
my only problem is getting the front end off the ground and keeping it secure while its up there.
Abba stand or a one of those stands that goes under the bottom yoke.
It's so easy to remove the fork legs, and it makes it far easier to remove the old paint and apply the new so why wouldn't you do it? Leaving them on is just making work for yourself, not saving it IMO.
I've painted 2 sets of curvy forks one on and one set off the bike and it didn't make much odds really. Both took a day to do and both looked good when finished.
if i were you i'd polish my forks
painting them may be the easier option but after a year or a few months if your riding on the road they will start pitting again
took me 4 hours to polish mine and they were bad
then again i do have a monster of a polishing station
I'd rather spend a few hours every 6/12 months painting the forks than polishing them, polishing is never ending once its been polished you have to keep polishing over and over again. With painting you paint them and that's it your done for a year with them just needing a wash now and again
madandy
03-05-11, 12:31 PM
gotta love the gleem and bling
BBadger
03-05-11, 02:19 PM
i love the bling...and if you clear coat them properly the polished finish does last a good amount of time.
Jayneflakes
03-05-11, 02:47 PM
I am just painting up a set of twenty year old wheels from Carol's old training bike, the GTR1000. It has nearly 70 000 miles on it and was sat on Weston Sea front for close to five years before we started the recon job. You can only imagine how vile it looks.
First stop was the removing the years of filth and corrosion, then came the gentle sanding and then it got interesting. We bought a special primer designed to be painted directly onto Aluminium, it bonds well and once the second coat is dry, I will start smoothing that down.
Going on top of that is Halfords Acrylic spray paint and then clear coat. These wheels will be gorgeous when done, shame about the rest of the bike.
The important bit though is the same with the forks, take your time, prep everything well, use the right primer and do the best job that you can. Success is dependent on all of that. Hope that helps.
PS, B+Q sell aluminium primer in both Hammerite and Fortress. We chose fortress because it was in a bigger can!
dirtydog
03-05-11, 02:53 PM
gotta love the gleem and bling
Nah, I don't do the bling thing
if i were you i'd polish my forks
painting them may be the easier option but after a year or a few months if your riding on the road they will start pitting again
took me 4 hours to polish mine and they were bad
then again i do have a monster of a polishing station
i dont want them shiney though! i want them black!
Gixer front end...doesn't need painting or polishing.
You are being very persistant! Maybe if i hold out a bit longer you'l get so bothered by me not doing it you'l offer to do it for me :)
Abba stand or a one of those stands that goes under the bottom yoke.
I've painted 2 sets of curvy forks one on and one set off the bike and it didn't make much odds really. Both took a day to do and both looked good when finished.
I'd rather spend a few hours every 6/12 months painting the forks than polishing them, polishing is never ending once its been polished you have to keep polishing over and over again. With painting you paint them and that's it your done for a year with them just needing a wash now and again
and exactly, i dont mind painting them again every so often and any excuse to fiddle about with the bike is only good news to me :)
and thankyou everyone else for the advice etc!
It's so easy to remove the fork legs, and it makes it far easier to remove the old paint and apply the new so why wouldn't you do it? Leaving them on is just making work for yourself, not saving it IMO.
well to be honest iv not properly looked at what it would take to remove them, but like iv (possibly?) said im not mechanically minded and if i dont need to do it, then why do it and risk something going wrong. Thats how i see it anyway...
if i were you i'd polish my forks
painting them may be the easier option but after a year or a few months if your riding on the road they will start pitting again
took me 4 hours to polish mine and they were bad
then again i do have a monster of a polishing station
and im not doing it because they are pitted or anything, it just annoys me they are in a dull silver not super awesome stealth black!
well to be honest iv not properly looked at what it would take to remove them, but like iv (possibly?) said im not mechanically minded and if i dont need to do it, then why do it and risk something going
You have to remove the wheel, brake calipers and mudguard anyway. from that point, removing the forks is quite literally an extra minute to undo the clamp bolts on the yokes and clip ons. You can then strip the old paint, mask up the stanchions and spray the lowers away from your bike so you don't have the ball ache of masking everything up on the bike to protect it from over spray. Honestly, if you want to do make a tidy job of it then it's a complete no-brainer.
Obviously you need to support the front of the bike, but you'd need to do that anyway to paint the forks on the bike. I use a lifting strap around the front of the frame and support it from an RSJ in my workshop, but people have used step ladders as 'A' frames to do this. The best solution is a proper bike stand that fits up into the yoke stem.
If you want the OEM finish, then the "5 wheel" silver spray and matching lacquer from e.g. Halfords is a virtually perfect match and very tough paint. Use etch primer first to get good adhesion on aluminium alloy.
Nobbylad
03-05-11, 05:46 PM
And if you're going to all that trouble to remove the existing front end, you may as well bolt on a Gixer front end in it's place..... ;)
And if you're going to all that trouble to remove the existing front end, you may as well bolt on a Gixer front end in it's place..... ;)
haha i knew that was coming!
And if you're going to all that trouble to remove the existing front end, you may as well bolt on a Gixer front end in it's place..... ;)
:laughat: :laughat: :laughat: :laughat:
So go on then, put d lad out of his misery, how much would a gsxr front end cost him and what wud he get for his own....?
Rowlandz
04-05-11, 05:40 PM
If you take your time scouting for a front end, you can make money on the swap and it's not technically difficult.
Any idea what a front end would be worth from my k3? And how much would a gixer one cost?
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