3rd gen for leggs repaint

ok,

so I've taken my forks off and in lieu of taking them appart I've found a way to mask off the internals (removed the seals and substituted them with a plastic thing that comes as a protector on a roll of teflon tape, as a barrier for anything foreighn to fall into the forks), in order to stip the bubbling/peeling gray paint from the leggs.

I've done a good job at removing the paint and sanding down some of the corrosion/oxydation from the exposed metal, and have matticulously masked off all lthe mating surfaces/ holes on the fork leggs.

I'm ready for a few coats of primer.

I've picked up a nice gold flake duplicolour engine paint. I figure that will be a fairly tough paint to stand up to rocks and such...

NOW FOR THE STUPID QUESTIOS:

the can states that for best results its recomended to heat cure the painted surface at 200 farenheit for 1 hour.
that being the case, I'm wondering what that temp would do to the internals of the fully assembled forks? would the oil break down/damage? other parts get damaged?

It doesn't sound like a good idea to me - to bake your forks in an oven for an hour at 180 or so, and I probably wont do it, but just thought if anyone had any thoughts otherwise...

now I guess my other question is, how big of a job is it to take the forks appart and put them back together? the cost is equivalent to new oil, and a set of new fork seals. I was going to get ne seals anyhow, but wasn't planning on changing the oil in them...

If I do take them appart, what do I have to look out for? immaculately clean working area, and wrapping up all the internals into virgin garbage bags to make sure that no particles attach themselves to any part of the internals, is what I figure would be a good way to go about it...

what type of oil will give me a better ride from stock?

ok,

hope you're not laughing too hard at my dumb questions....

and that someone has some answers...


thanks in advance!

ok.

took your silence as a repromendation for such a stupid question...

that being the case, I've decided agains the ghetto approact - even tho I am from Detroit...

so, I've broken down the forks, ordered new seals and new oil, going with the Honda ProOil 5w (which by the way may be discontiuned soon, so if you need it stock up) and will go with the 120mm level - as suggested in other posts by some of the fork gurus on here.

now that I have the leggs taken off, I've given them a final sanding and a 3m green scratch pad brushing, then washed them out with varsol throughout, then washed them with dish soap throughtly to get rid of the residual varsol and oils - then they went into the oven for a 10 minutes or so to get rid of all moisture. then, while wearing gloves, they were wrapped in newspaper, then taken to work where we have a little paint booth, and after a final rubbing alcohol rubdown, they were shot with duplicolor gold flake engine paint. about 6 coats of that, followed by 4 coats of duplicolor high gloss caliper clear, and now the fork leggs look great!

they will be baked tonight at 200 farenheit for an hour - as the can calls for - hopefully resulting in a super high strenth finish, that will be resistent to nicks and such.

then I gotta re-assemble them this weekend, and will take some picture and post up here!

thanks for setting me straight with the disapproving silence! lol.

[image: View Post]vfrgo, on 13 April 2011 - 11:02 AM, said:

ok.

took your silence as a repromendation for such a stupid question...

that being the case, I've decided agains the ghetto approact - even tho I am from Detroit...

so, I've broken down the forks, ordered new seals and new oil, going with the Honda ProOil 5w (which by the way may be discontiuned soon, so if you need it stock up) and will go with the 120mm level - as suggested in other posts by some of the fork gurus on here.

now that I have the leggs taken off, I've given them a final sanding and a 3m green scratch pad brushing, then washed them out with varsol throughout, then washed them with dish soap throughtly to get rid of the residual varsol and oils - then they went into the oven for a 10 minutes or so to get rid of all moisture. then, while wearing gloves, they were wrapped in newspaper, then taken to work where we have a little paint booth, and after a final rubbing alcohol rubdown, they were shot with duplicolor gold flake engine paint. about 6 coats of that, followed by 4 coats of duplicolor high gloss caliper clear, and now the fork leggs look great!

they will be baked tonight at 200 farenheit for an hour - as the can calls for - hopefully resulting in a super high strenth finish, that will be resistent to nicks and such.

then I gotta re-assemble them this weekend, and will take some picture and post up here!

thanks for setting me straight with the disapproving silence! lol.



LOL.. doubt anyone was reprimanding you.. probably everyone was deferring to everyone else since there wasn't much first-hand knowledge on doing it that way.. I'm not a fork guru, but since you've already broken down the forks, make sure to check over your bushings for wear... shouldn't be any copper showing through the grey teflon coating side. waiting for the pics. :biggrin:

Sorry, I didn't see your first post. I would have said, pull the forks apart! I can't think of anything that would necessarily melt (unless someone's used PVC pipe to make the pre-load spacers...but that's usually only done if someone's replaced the springs with Race-Tech or summat), but I just think the way you were considering doing it was rather Mickey Mouse. :biggrin:

If you've got the forks apart (no need to remove the cartridges), then you're nearly done. Just check the condition of the bushings and replace if worn, as Burns said. Post some pics when you're done!

Ciao,

[image: View Post]JZH, on 13 April 2011 - 05:59 PM, said:

Sorry, I didn't see your first post. I would have said, pull the forks apart! I can't think of anything that would necessarily melt (unless someone's used PVC pipe to make the pre-load spacers...but that's usually only done if someone's replaced the springs with Race-Tech or summat), but I just think the way you were considering doing it was rather Mickey Mouse. :biggrin:

If you've got the forks apart (no need to remove the cartridges), then you're nearly done. Just check the condition of the bushings and replace if worn, as Burns said. Post some pics when you're done!

Ciao,


There's a teflon bushing on the plastic rebound valve, or a rubber o ring on a RaceTech rebound valve. Plus the oil in there would make a mess...

Only other thing, which it sounds too late for, is that there should be an etching primer under that first layer of color...

Glad you took them apart, that's the right way to do it!

well,
the baking is done.. to the delight of my girlfriend, as it offgassed some paint smell. not much by my standards, just enough to notice the smell, but my girlfriend was ready to call in a haz-mat team and never bake anything in the oven again... I blame "lysol" commercials!

anyhow, the paint seems super tough and the finish came out beautifull...

the back inside (side of the fork leg that will be facing the tire) of the fork legg came out a bit rougher as I didn't want to keep piling on clear to compensate for the rough mould finish on the metal itself... so its forseeable that its a spot that will collect more dust, but it always is, so i'm not too concerned.

ok, the bushings... I've looked at them when I was taking the fork appart and they are more or less fully copper... which means that I gotta call the honda powerhouse and order new ones...

stay tuned as I may need a bit of help on the puting the forks back together and oil level measuring and all that...

but all in all, to do this project the right way isnt all that much work (up till now), and the results are very satisfying!

pics coming soon!