cleaning fork legs

[mobile mouse]

Hi,
About to replace oil in fork legs and thinking to have the fork legs cleaned of corrosion.


Been told about vapour blasting see http://www.fjaquablasting.co.uk/index.html


But what do i put back on clear coat or silver powder coat?
does any one know what the finish is... please.

[sinto]

Wow, that looks a good product and really cleans the stuff, very interesting :-)
So my thought was why would you powder coat after you've got it so clean? Personally I'd get it clear lacquered, there isn't a right or wrong way, it's how you want it to look.

[darrsi]

I used paint stripper, wet 'n' dry, silver wheel spray, then spray lacquered them.

[darrsi]

Here you go......


http://foc-u.co.uk/index.php/topic,9071.msg90290.html#msg90290

[Chris]

I took mine off, wet and dry sanded them down, spray painted, primer, ford panther black and they look fine.

Early fzs600 had bare alloy forks so corrode, can't remember what year they changed but about the time of the foxeye I think then they painted them silver. the problem with painted ones is you get stone chips which then sets off/exposes the alloy below and then it corrodes and the paint bubbles so need painted every couple to few years in my experience..

Chris

[fazersharp]

Early fzs600 had bare alloy forks so corrode, can't remember what year they changed but about the time of the foxeye I think then they painted them silver. the problem with painted ones is you get stone chips which then sets off/exposes the alloy below and then it corrodes and the paint bubbles so need painted every couple to few years in my experience..

Chris

Almost but not quite right - the first ones were alloy with a lacquer on them which got stone chipped and then the alloy underneath started to corrode which means that you can see white corrosion spread around the chip hole but you can not clean it because it is under the clear lacquer so the forks get covered in white scabs like this

[Chris]

Ah right, known as whiteworm isn't it? Had that on a set of golf alloys I used to have that had polished faces. You're right, I had forgotten they were lacquered 

That's team work. haha

Chris

[fazersharp]

White worm thats a good name for it as you can see it worming its way along the width of the fofks as they are sort of a polished brush texture and the corrosion follows the brush, the red ones are were flies.  I have never been asred to do anything about it because I dont do "wet" so it has not got any worse, what you see was done before I had the bike in 2001 so it only took 2.5 years af all weather riding to do that

[His Dudeness]

If you want to get rid of the corrosion you can use wet and dry sandpaper and sand it and the old lacquer off and then re-lacquer them. As I remember it it took a day to do. It's a boring job but it cleaned them up nicely. You can polish them to a mirror finish if that's what you're into or you can create more of a matt finish with the wet and dry.