Stripping paint from fork lowers

[Grahamm]

I'm planning on repainting the fork lowers on my FZ6 as they've been battered and chipped by stones and other road debris over the years.

So I presume I'm going to need some paint stripper, however I'm not sure what to get or if there's anything else I'd need.

Obviously I'll remove the brake calipers and cover anything that I don't want painted and make sure nothing gets on the threads etc, and I've got etch primer and the same paint I used on the rear footpeg hangers, but is there anything else I should consider?

PS I have thought about powder coating, but that involves stripping them down entirely, instead of the quick(er) job I'm thinking about.

[agricola]

Paint stripper is not was it was a few years ago Graham the old type active ingredients neuttered in the interests of health and safety. Largely ineffective, lots of patience reqd, and scraping. You may be quicker purchasing some emery band and rubbing it off to bare

[Grahamm]

Hmm, that's a PITA

Ok, I could create a loop of emery/ sand paper which I could drive from a drill, for example, but that would still have problems where the brake calipers mount and the square sections of the forks where I'd have to use a dremel or maybe a flap wheel would work?

[Mark YPVS]

i use this stuff, wear proper gloves, eye protection, PPE etc if you get it on you it burns, i used it to strip paint off my 250LC as nitromors didn't touch it.


Power Strip Best Industrial Strength Heavy Duty Paint Stripper Remover 1Litre | eBay


Mark

[Grahamm]

i use this stuff

Looks interesting (if a little dangerous!)

Someone elsewhere suggested "aircraft paint stripper" which I'm going to take a look at as well.

[beuleux]

Old school nitromorse was unbeatable back in the day but sadly no longer available 😢 I would advise against powder coating anything, chips are not practical to repair and water will eventually get under the plastic where any bolts go once you've had them off a few times, I'd recommend emerying them down to 1200 and  clear lacquer, looks great and can be repaired, assuming you were planning on painting them silver 👍

[Grahamm]

I would advise against powder coating anything, chips are not practical to repair and water will eventually get under the plastic where any bolts go once you've had them off a few times

Thanks for the advice. I'd pretty much decided against powder coating, but that's probably put the nail in its coffin for good

I'd recommend emerying them down to 1200 and  clear lacquer, looks great and can be repaired, assuming you were planning on painting them silver 👍

Yes, I've got the paint I used to respray the rear footpeg hangers, plus etch primer and clear coat to use, it was mostly just how to get the old and very battered paint off easiest that I was concerned about.

[beuleux]

Yes, I've got the paint I used to respray the rear footpeg hangers, plus etch primer and clear coat to use, it was mostly just how to get the old and very battered paint off easiest that I was concerned about.

Yep since the banning of whatever the good ingredient was in nitromorse paint stripping has become a laborious chore but if you have the time to sit in a cold garage with some emery the results are worth the effort, but there are many ways to skin a cat 🐈 😻, these days for frames and the like I would go for decent hard wearing automotive paint every time 👍 good luck with the forks and let us know in an update how they turned out

Dunno how but I faffed up the quote feature in this post 😅

[Fixed it for you with a bit of Moderator Magic - GrahamM - Moderator]

[Grahamm]

Yep since the banning of whatever the good ingredient was in nitromorse paint stripping has become a laborious chore but if you have the time to sit in a cold garage with some emery the results are worth the effort

I have a wire brush attachment for my drill, but I'm worried that that might scratch the aluminium.

I've seen suggestions about using a brass wire brush fitting instead of a steel one as that's softer, but I'm going to look into that further before I mess things up!

[beuleux]

From experience wire wheels can give you quite an uneven finish depending on how many problem areas you find, if you have any scrap ally parts hanging about you could do some practice runs, but then again it depends on the quality of finish you're looking for, personally my spare winter bike can have gaffer tape and cable ties holding it together 😄

[Grahamm]

it depends on the quality of finish you're looking for, personally my spare winter bike can have gaffer tape and cable ties holding it together 😄

Well, it's not looking particularly great now, but it's been like that for a while.

The pic below is from early in the first Lockdown (before I removed the calipers, cleaned them up and put on braided brake lines) and the paintwork still looks like that now, so I'm not exactly stressing about it!

However if I'm going to do something like that, I prefer to do it right and make a good job of it so it doesn't need doing again for a while.

[beuleux]

Yes I see, if you do too good a job it will put things like the hose brackets to shame, there is always the danger of a massive case of ocd and renovating the entire bike 😄 (I've done that once.. doh!) i can see a mottled texture can't tell if its the paint or the ally, but it will be a bugger to key the whole lot flat, given that your after the quickest fix then it looks like a clean and a quick key up then respraying as per your original idea, I take it you have some experience with spray cans as you recently did the peg hangers

[midden]

Instead of stripping the paint couldn't you rub down the blistering paint then use a filler primer before finishing with top coat. 

[Grahamm]

Instead of stripping the paint couldn't you rub down the blistering paint then use a filler primer before finishing with top coat. 

The paint isn't blistering, it's just battered.

Yes,  could rub them down, but if there's a solution that requires less elbow grease...!

[fazerscotty]

In the past, I've used a scotchbrite pad attached to an air tool to remove the crap. Cleaned off with brake cleaner and painted with enamel.

[Captain Haddock]

Anyone local to you with a blasting cabinet? We have two at work, one is iron powder and good at shifting hard carbon and corrosion and the other crushed walnut shells which takes paint of well leaving aluminium alone, you can blast pistons without worrying.If you're anywhere near st.neots I could probably give them a go over.We normally put big stuff in a paint strip tank first but the fluid is full of lead and crap so not easy to clean out the inside of a fork tube.

[Grahamm]

I'm in Portsmouth. There are probably people who do blasting down here, but I'd like to try to do it myself if I can.

[Mark YPVS]

I use the Velcro pads in a battery drill for paint prep as it saves on elbow grease, i brought this kit for the brushes to clean car carpets and seats, but found the Velcro flat pads a great for paint prep 


 [size=78%]12pc Tile Carpet Power Scrubber Drill Brush Attachment Tub Cleaning Supplies Kit | eBay[/size]


Mark

[beuleux]

I'm in Portsmouth. There are probably people who do blasting down here, but I'd like to try to do it myself if I can.

Elbow grease it is then 😅


Personally I find lonely evenings in the garage with emery paper to be quite therapeutic 👍