Refinishing fork sliders...

Any ideas out there as to what works and looks good? I'm wet sanding right now with 220 to remove the original clear coat and not quite sure whether to attempt another clear coat or not.

I'd like to hear from others what you've done. Tips and tricks are appreciated.

There are better clears out there. Or you can try this if you like. I just painted them body color, that was before I put the LTD forks and GPZ wheel on though

Yeah, I might end up painting them, since sanding and polishing is taking a lot of work.

I was looking at clear coat yesterday and found Dupli-Color makes several flavors of mag rim coating. They have clear, silver, graphite, and bronze. I think I may go with the silver and see how it turns out.

Just wanted to update and show how the forks came out. I tore them down and replaced the fork seals, dust boots, and new 15w fluid.

I ended up wet sanding with 220 to remove the clear coat, catching the hard to reach areas with medium coarse steel wool. Then wet sanded with 400, then 800. A final buff with fine steel wool and mothers brought out the shine. I left them uncoated for now, we will see how it goes. I'm sure I could have put more time into them and made the finish even nicer, but it's good enough for now.

Post edited by: savedrider, at: 2005/11/06 20:55

Before pic...

Left after...

Right after...

Looks really good. I have 2 more sets if you want more "experience" :woohoo:

DanOz7Five0 wrote:

Looks really good. I have 2 more sets if you want more "experience" :woohoo:

Oh buddy...once was enough! :dry:

Back in the wax-n-cleaner section at (my local) WallyMart.....they got this wadding stuff called "Never-Dull". GREAT stuff for those polished pieces that the clear has been removed from. Not much chrome and such on mine, but I use it on the fork sliders of her 450 Rebel, as well as all the chrome, and it works really good.

Yeah I've heard of Never Dull and was wondering how it compares to Mothers.

I like it better than tube polish, and a little torn-off piece goes a LOOOOOONG way. The stuff seems to last forever. Give it a shot, I think you'll be impressed/surprised.