Painting fork legs

[Stinka]

what’s the best way to turn my fork bottoms black on my fzs1000 ?


Nothing fancy, just in the process of getting rid of all the silver and chrome etc.


I’m thinking take legs off, rub down and clean up with a solvent. Then rattle can. But what can ? Is it worth using primer first ? Could I just use something like hammerite ?

[Stinka]

I’ve read that I can achieve decent results with smoothrite


Heat can in a hot water bath, heat legs moderately with heat gun. I’m thinking I can do this in situ, after removing wheel etc and masking up

[Stinka]

Apparently bed liner spray is pretty tough

[Freck]

When I did my fork legs, I removed them from the bike and did each one individually.
I stripped the old paint off with a wire wheel on my bench grinder (a bit of a messy job) then degreased, masked up, two coats of zinc primer and two coats of silver smoothrite. All done with rattle cans.


I was really pleased with the finish. I did think about a clear coat on top but the smoothrite looks great and seems to be lasting ok.

[coffee]

I  did my fork legs on a Honda pan I had in silver I had mixed up by Jawel paints,it was £12 at the time.I was to idol to take the forks apart so just took out the wheel ,mudguard,calipers etc and masked the rest off and put an old bed sheet over the bike.I flatted the legs down and primered them with car stuff,if I remember about 3 coats then flatted it with a fine paper.I'd always read lots of thin coats and recoat when the previous one was almost dry so that's what I did.After I suppose 6 coats I let it dry and then flatted it with 1500 and then did pretty much the same with clear laquer,again from Jawel.I remember blowing it all over with a hair dryer and leaving it for a good day or so before putting it back together and it was still as good when I sold it,a bit laborious but worth it.

[PieEater]

Be careful with the damping adjusters, use a good coating of vaseline / grease to stop paint getting into them, they need very little excuse to seize.