fork - pitting/rust - service advice

Good afternoon,

from the attached pic you can see there's a handy dose of rust on the bolts at the bottom of my bike's front forks and the front axle(?) seems rusty aswel. Are these items I should get replaced when I book an upcoming service? The joys of living near the sea perhaps.
Also the front forks on my '01 SV650S are pretty scabby looking right now, plenty of rough white patches adorning them. The bike was like this when I bought it and I've finally figured I should be less feckin' lazy and tidy them up. Is this something I can sand off without damaging the forks themselves or do I need some special metal restoring products?
Finally can the brown-tacular exhaust be polished up with any decent metal polish and good old rub?
Thanks for any hints.

[G]

The exhaust will clean up perfect with a little work.

The forks however wont, you would need to sand off the finish on the entire fork and then polish the metal, which from memory is what pete&lissa have done, but then it takes some work keeping it nice.

Failing that you would need to re powdercoat them.

all can be polished matey, its hard work but i think its worth it.

Originally Posted by graemepaterson

The exhaust will clean up perfect with a little work.

The forks however wont, you would need to sand off the finish on the entire fork and then polish the metal, which from memory is what pete&lissa have done, but then it takes some work keeping it nice.

Failing that you would need to re powdercoat them.

Sid Squid has warned me against powdercoating the forks due to the temperatures used.

There is a possibility of them warping. He suggested just spraying them.

[G]

Originally Posted by Jester666

Sid Squid has warned me against powdercoating the forks due to the temperatures used.

There is a possibility of them warping. He suggested just spraying them.

Never heard of it being a problem, I had some lightweight steel race wheels acid dipped and powdercoated, and they were considerably thinner and weaker than an sv forks , if its from experience though then i guess steer clear of powercoating.

Most paints wont give a strong finish like powder coating which is the only thing that would put me off that route.

I'm tempted to fit some of that clear enamel film to my forks to prevent it happening.

[Spanner Man]

Afternoon all.

I've had dozens of fork sliders powder coated, & never had a problem.

However, when having this sort of work done it's best to use a firm that are experienced with motorcycle parts. Your average industrial powder coaters are more used to handling steel in large lumps, & not delicate bits of alloy.


Cheers.

when we powder coat typically the temperature does not exceed 400 F that not hot enough to matter is it?

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by graemepaterson

The forks however wont, you would need to sand off the finish on the entire fork and then polish the metal, which from memory is what pete&lissa have done, but then it takes some work keeping it nice.

Er, less of the 'Pete and Lissa', Pete had no part of the fork polishing

It's actually very easy to polish them and keep them looking good.
http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.p...polished+forks