Removing surface rust on fork tubes

mothgils

mothgils

Coast to Coast
I searched and found a small thread regarding rust on fork tubes. After pulling my forks off the bike, they both have a small bit of rust where the stock mounting ears for the headlight/turns covered it.

I haven't done a lot of polishing but what would be the process I should follow working with different grits?


The plus side is there isn't any rust on part of the tube in the travel area but my goal is to not use re-used the stock mounting ears for the headlight so that portion of the tube will be exposed.


I will try and post some pics up tonight. I need to create my build thread ;D
 
as i recall the fork tubes are "hard chrome". if you see rust, the chrome is non-existent beneath it. you can clean it off (scotch brite, fine steel wool, tin foil) but it more than likely will come back. im going to try painting mine, as cleaning only lasted about 6 weeks before i could see the rust again (im close to the ocean though) but painting chrome.... also not the best idea...
 
domer said:
as i recall the fork tubes are "hard chrome". if you see rust, the chrome is non-existent beneath it. you can clean it off (scotch brite, fine steel wool, tin foil) but it more than likely will come back. im going to try painting mine, as cleaning only lasted about 6 weeks before i could see the rust again (im close to the ocean though) but painting chrome.... also not the best idea...
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Yeah I thought about painting. I think I might clean them up and simply paint like a flat black but only where the rust was which is in between the triples. There is no surface rust in the area that travels. That might work for a temp fix until I could get new or better used fork tubes.

any ideas for what grits I should be working with?
 
if your going to paint it, id start at 220... have to try and scuff up the chrome as much as possible. which isnt going to be easy cause its hard chrome. i did my fender 220, 320, 400. it holds up, not very well but touch up is simple... 6 months and only 1 touch up ;D
 
domer said:
if your going to paint it, id start at 220... have to try and scuff up the chrome as much as possible. which isnt going to be easy cause its hard chrome. i did my fender 220, 320, 400. it holds up, not very well but touch up is simple... 6 months and only 1 touch up ;D
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actually I have some 80, 120 AO belts to scuff it up and then finer grades to polish it up. I will mess with it tonight and see what I come up with.
 
+1 on painting them. That's what I did with mine. I had the same problem but yours doesn't sound as bad. I ended up using spray-on bedliner as it's tougher and sticks on chrome better than regular spray paint. It has held up well, and I still like it.
 
120 might be ok, 80 is to harsh imo. rough grooves wont make the paint stick any better than fine ones. starting that low is a lot of work to get the same result. even 120 is a little extreme...
Deviant1 said:
+1 on painting them. That's what I did with mine. I had the same problem but yours doesn't sound as bad. I ended up using spray-on bedliner as it's tougher and sticks on chrome better than regular spray paint. It has held up well, and I still like it.
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bedliner...fuckin brilliant!!! i know what im doing this weekend!
 
Deviant1 said:
+1 on painting them. That's what I did with mine. I had the same problem but yours doesn't sound as bad. I ended up using spray-on bedliner as it's tougher and sticks on chrome better than regular spray paint. It has held up well, and I still like it.
Click to expand...

alex...do you have any up close pics of your painted fork tubes?
 
Another reason I used the bedliner was to hide the pits in the tubes with the texture of the bedliner. I ended up putting the forks back together, amsking everything off and then painting them so that reassembly wouldn't scratch the bedliner. Here's the best pic I could find of them. This was right after they were painted:
2-1.jpg

Hope that helps.
 
that does thanks man!

I figured that I would have to mask everything off and spray it after the forks were assembled.
 
Deviant1 said:
Smearing your body with green jello and watching Madonna videos from the 80's?
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close... i was thinking whipped cream and the b-52's.
front end looks sweet by the way
 
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