Painting forks?

[mikerj]

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.

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]

Gixer front end...doesn't need painting or polishing.

[dirtydog]

Originally Posted by BBadger

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.

Originally Posted by mikerj

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.

Originally Posted by madandy

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

gotta love the gleem and bling

i love the bling...and if you clear coat them properly the polished finish does last a good amount of time.

[Jayneflakes]

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]

Originally Posted by madandy

gotta love the gleem and bling

Nah, I don't do the bling thing

Originally Posted by madandy

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!

Originally Posted by Nobbylad

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

Originally Posted by dirtydog

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!

Originally Posted by mikerj

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...

Originally Posted by madandy

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!