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

Re: Painting forks!?
 

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.

Re: Painting forks!?
 

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!

Re: Painting forks!?
 

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.

Re: Painting forks!?
 

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.

Re: Painting forks!?
 

thanks! its sounding a little less intimidating already! :)

Re: Painting forks!?
 

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.

Re: Painting forks!?
 

If you take your time scouting for a front end, you can make money on the swap and it's not technically difficult.

Re: Painting forks!?
 

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!

Re: Painting forks!?
 

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.