Fork tube refinishing

[markj]

So I'm ready to strip the forks and swap everything into the new tubes I got from Franks Forks. The outter tubes have the usual light corrosion etc. and I want to refinish them. The stock finish appears to have a brushed aluminum finish that has some sort of coating on top.

My powder coater told me that if I bead blast them and clear powder coat them they'll look like a grey painted finish rather than the bare metal stock look.

Any suggestions on how I can make them look like new but stock? My buddy has a lathe and I thought I could bead blast them and then turn them using some sand paper to give the brushed finish but then what would I coat them with?

Any help appreciated.

[two-stroke-brit]

i have not tried it yet myself but plan to. use scotchbrite in power drill flapper and go round the leg rather than up and down.
it should give dull brushed finnish, then clear coat.
my 2 cents .
mark

[markj]

So should I just use the scotch/drill combo to strip and clean or should I bead blast the old clear off first?

[two-stroke-brit]

So should I just use the scotch/drill combo to strip and clean or should I bead blast the old clear off first?

my plan was to take the clear of with paint striper first then finish them with the drill/scotchbrite .then reclear.
mark

[Zunspec4]

Hi Mark,

The guy that I use for for polishing can also do a Satin Finish and I had the lower fork sliders on my TS125 Satin Brushed. I had mine sprayed with a two-pack clear finish. I was advised that alloy this old is pretty hard to clean of ALL contaminates and a clear powder coat (heat etc.) could result in "blooms" of opaqueness. This has still happened even with the clearcoat but it is not too bad, just a point to note. I would bet any decent polishing shop will offer a Satin finish.

Cheers Zunspec

[two-stroke-brit]

they look great.

[markj]

those really do look great. I'm not sure we have any polish shops around here but I'll take a look. The powdercoater did say he could put a satin aluminum finish on the tubes but it seems like that's kind of stepping away from the natural aluminim look.

[Zunspec4]

Hi mark,

The returned results really were to original factory appearance and I am pretty happy with them.

Although a frequent visitor to the US I forget that it is a BIG country and services like a polishing shop are not necessarily just around the corner (3 miles from where I work). The guy who does mine is not motorcycle exclusive and does loads of all sorts of work. it might be worth checking the Yellow Pages (or equivalent) outside of the M/c Services section for a general polishing shop.

Cheers Zunspec

[markj]

Thanks man, I'll see if I can find a place that might do that. If not I'll try the scotch pad method.

[novaiiman]

For all of you who have been looking for a quality way to refinish the corroded lower fork legs check this site out that I came across. Workmanship looks great and the cost is fair. Only drawback is that you have to disassemble the forks and just send the outer tubes.

http://usa2strokers.com/forum/forum_pos ... ng-service" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;