Corrosion on front forks
 

Hey everyone im back ! :D

been off comp for 6 months or so as changed job and have just re-located to co-habit with the lovely debbs :love: in crewe :D

Anyway... on the right hand fork on debbs bike there is, what i can only describe as a calcium type depoist that :evil: have tried everthing i can think of to shift it, bike cleaner, petrol, whitespirit, de-greaser, break fluid :? t-cut scratch remover (which did remove it eventually along with the matt finish of the fork 8-[ :-$ ) and the stuff just doesn't want to go :evil:

any ideas please guys on what it is and how to get rid off :?:

My forks, Before and after polishing.

Wetndry, scotchbrite, tcut, Autoglym metal polish and a can of elbow grease :D

Before-----------------------------------------------------------------------After
http://server2.uploadit.org/files/viney71-ForksBnA.jpg

8) looking rather shiny there viny :shock: not sure if she wants the forks shiny or just the crud gone ! think the later is more likely :?

oxidisation
 

corrosion is probabley Aluminium Oxide, one of the hardest substances there is. Forms when aluminium is exposed to air. Although it looks bad it doesn't penetrate the surface and is harmless. polishing it out is probabley the only way to get it off. If you dismantle your forks you could sandblast the fork legs( the lowers not the shiney tubes!!) and then laquer them to protect the finish. My bike looks quite tidy except for the forks which are covered in the stuff, one day I will get around to polishing them and painting and laquering them. Best of luck!

making the forks shiny like that...i wonder if mine will be as nice as that


did you have to take the forks off to make 'em look that good?

oh yeah, if your going to polish 'em do it by hand until your on the buffing stage or you might put deep scratches in soft as butter aluminium!

my forks had that all round the top of the legs and they just looked really cruddy so i rubbed em down qand resprayed them. they went from reaaly nasty looking to looking like this




http://server2.uploadit.org/files/di...orksprayed.JPG


not bad for a couple of hours work.

I got mine powdercoated for much the same reason... Cost £20 plus new bushings, seals and crush washers, totally worth it I reckon. Not so good if you didn't plan on breaking the forks down anyway though.

i take it then for all of you that have done the work you had to remove the forks?

didnt need to remove the forks, just removed the calipers and wheel so the fork legs could be rubbed down an resprayed easily