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Proper way to paint fork

bullcrew

bullcrew

3 Dude Approved
Dec 8, 2004
8,938
2,617
I'm dude playing dude pretending to b another dude
Use any good auto white. Go to your local auto body supply and have them mix a single stage white. It has catalyst, hardner and clear all in one, Should be between $12-$20 get a good self etching/leveling primer $5 and some 400-600 grit paper $3-4. The single stage will flow even and have a great shine, you can wet ssand with 800 then 1000 hit it with perfect it II from 3m its a glaze and it will shine like its wet.
Which ever they recomend I like acrylic enamal as its an acryilated monomer (plastic base)... Thick and durable, theres also a clear thats tougher than nails and I can remember the name but a auto body supply would.
 
J

JKS

Chimp
Feb 26, 2008
50
0
old_sckool said:
well Yeah, As Far As The Sram Tech, I Kinda Doubt It's In His Expertise. Most Likely He May Of Seen A Set Come Thru That Was Done Improperly. But More Likely They're Just Being Like Most Manufacturers And Erring On The Side Of Caution. Pc'r Tend To Be Spotting At Best And Although Its Overall A Pretty Easy Process, There Is Lots Of Room To Screw Up If They Don't Know What They're Doing, Especially With A Odd Alloy Like Magnesium.

The Main Problem Seems To Be Adhering. But It Might Also Need A More Precise Temp Control. But I Don't Remember Temp Being A Major Issue. It Had Something To Do With How It Was Prepped, Might Have Been A Chemical Treatment. Sorry I Can't Remember More Details (i'm Old And Probably Have Early Stage Alzheimer's). If You Google "powdercoating Magnesium" You Should Be Able To Get More Info. But I Had To Sift Thru Quite A Bit, Before I Got Any Consistent Info. That Was A Year Ago. Might Be More Info Out There Now.

A Couple Things. Normal Powdercoating Only Takes About 400 Degrees. But Some Powdercoaters Are Pretty Low Tech And I've Heard Of Guys Getting Temps Up To 700 Degrees (i Guess Some Of The Larger Low Tech Ovens Can Have Hot Spots And Cool Spots, So They Crank It Up To Make Sure They Get At Least 400 Degrees). I'm Sure If You Get It To Hot It Would Damage Mag Lowers. There May Also Be An Issue With How It Is Stored While Cooling.

My Fox 40's Were Pc'd. I Had No Problems As Far A Warpage. I Even Left The Bushings In And They Were Fine.

But When I Got It Back, It Looked Pretty Good. But There Was A Couple Obvious Flaws. Mainly, A Little Sloppy (specks, Etc) But One Spot Had What Appeared To Be A Wrinkle. It Didn't Seems Loose, But I Didn't Poke It Much. I Just Took It To A Local Guy. When I Asked Him If He Could Pc Magnesium, He Said "i Don't See Why Not". Hence My Earlier Comment About Not Just Asking Them If They Can Do It. Make Sure.

My First Crash As Angel Fire In The Rock Garden, I Blew Off A Chuck Of Pc About The Size Of A Quarter (didn't Even Dent The Fork). Every Subsequent Chip Was At Least A 1/4" In Size.

I've Had At Least 8 Frames Powdercoated. Olympic Pc In Santa Ana Has Done Most (they Do All Turner's Work) They Do Great Work For A Reasonable Price, But Don't Get Into Any Super Fancy Custom Work. Spectrum Pc In Colorado Springs (awesome Custom Work, But Expensive). Premium Pc In Fort Collins (good Work, But Overpriced (180.00 For A Front Triangle). And A Local Guy Who Was Dirt Cheap, But The Quality Was Poor ($35 For A Complete Frame, And The Fork That Didn't Hold).

Right Now I Have A Bunch Of Linkage Parts And A Monster T Down At Olympic.
The Monster Is A Great Fork For Pc'ing. Lowers Are Machined Aluminum And The Bushings Can Be Removed By Hand, No Special Tools. I'll Being Posting A Pic In The Brooklyn Porn Thread When It Is Done.

Here Is Pic Of My Fox 40, Before It Started Chipping Off. Metallic Brown. It Was Sweet Looking When It Was Fresh.

Click to expand...
Nice Rotec.
 
J

JKS

Chimp
Feb 26, 2008
50
0
bullcrew said:
There I did mine today! Lowers, both crowns.
Scuff it all with 400-600 grit, then white dupli-colr and let dry, then dupli-color clear coat again let dry.
Note: Make sure to get in all nooks and crannys with the sand paper as to not leave a week bond area.



Click to expand...
Nice job! How do you like that ROCO Air?
 
bullcrew

bullcrew

3 Dude Approved
Dec 8, 2004
8,938
2,617
I'm dude playing dude pretending to b another dude
????? said:
Did you leave it all assembled? Just taped around the stanchions, steer tube, and adjustment knobs, sanded and painted?
Click to expand...
Yeah I masked the stanchions and steertube off even before sanding it, made sure I got the underside lip and top around where the aluminum top caps are. Removed the adjusters as well to tape off.
Sanded 600g, plasticoat white, put in front of incadescent heater for 1 hour then let cool, clear coat and back infront of heater for 2-3 hours. Remove mask assemble and let it finish drying slowley on its own.
 
PatBranch

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
Is there a bushing sleeve that goes between the bushings on a super T, like the 888? Could that get messed up by heat? What are bushings made of? Would I just need new bushings, not a sleeve? I think I'm going to order some now, with quick shipping, so I can get my bike ready for the race. I'm out of questions?
 
J

JKS

Chimp
Feb 26, 2008
50
0
Im about to paint my 40 metallic black. I sanded it with 320 to prep it for the filler primer, I will use the filler primer mostly where its nicked, then sand it with 600. Then I will paint 1 coat, let dry, wet sand with 1000 grit, paint another coat, wetsand with 2000 grit. Then I will clear coat. Will post pics when its finished and with the 2009 decals.:monkeydance:
 
?

?????

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2005
1,678
2
San Francisco
Alright, I'm convinced. Just tore my fork down and am about to strip the old powder coat.

What is entailed in wet sanding?

I have new wipers ordered so I believe I'll paint with the older wipers in to keep any paint from getting in that area.

What do you think about painting the crowns white as well?



Also, when you service your Fox 40, do you clean out all of the dirty fluid sticking to the inside of the stanchions or do I just leave that alone?
 
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bullcrew

bullcrew

3 Dude Approved
Dec 8, 2004
8,938
2,617
I'm dude playing dude pretending to b another dude
????? said:
Alright, I'm convinced. Just tore my fork down and am about to strip the old powder coat.

What is entailed in wet sanding?

I have new wipers ordered so I believe I'll paint with the older wipers in to keep any paint from getting in that area.

What do you think about painting the crowns white as well?

http://forums.myspace.com/t/4370058.aspx?fuseaction=forums.viewthread

Also, when you service your Fox 40, do you clean out all of the dirty fluid sticking to the inside of the stanchions or do I just leave that alone?
Click to expand...
Id paint over the PC, use it as a primer instead of complete tear down (stripped).
Use 400g sand paper usually black or grey it is wet/dry, use a spray bottle or a little bowl of water to dip the paper in to keep it fully wet and it washes the material off so it doesnt clog paper. Do the whole think thats to be painted including grooves etc..

Heres an important part:
Dry it and look it over to make sure its all hazy, if anythings shiny then it wont grab there like its supposed too!

Fill any pits after wet sanding with a filler they will be easier to spot as they will be shiny due to recessed area. You can either use a filler primer, poly primer or just paint from here.

Edited: Never mind your bike is white so itll look good with black crowns, if your headsets black you can get away with white crowns! 50/50 based on it being a white frame.

Oh and YES paint the crowns it looks better!

 
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DirtyMike

DirtyMike

Turbo Fluffer
Aug 8, 2005
14,437
1,017
My own world inside my head
????? said:
Too late. The pc is bubbling up with tal-strip. There's no turning back now!
Click to expand...


Ok your still ok, You will just need to give it a good scrub down after your done, wash and dry that bad boy now. Let it sit overnight to make sure its totally dry. Then your going to want to Primer it, now your not going to use just one primer. you want your first nd second layer to be the primer for adhesion, your third and fourth to be a filler primer, possibly more on the filler if you need. the filler primer is usually brown/tan, and you can sand it to get it smooth and pretty, personally i like to add one more light layer of black base primer after this to help make sure my filler is smooth, basically specle it and you will see the irregukarities. then paint evenly, air brush cool graphics whatever, if the paint your using has the hardener that works as a clear, let it cure completly befor reassembling, if your not, you want to use four or five layers of clear to protect your paint. there are different clears though so be carefull. some require color sanding/polishing some are supersmooth but dont protect so well. A good gun will make all the difference on your clear as well.



As far as someone was asking about paints that hold up to brake cleaner/fluid? Clearcoat fixs that. Aqrillic paint will die on its one from brake fluid, so will laquer...... Very fast. To the point you ave to start from scratch.
I like using House of color produts myself, good paint, good clears, good people. Tell them what your using it for, they will help you with the mix and technique.


Pat, if your bushings look like polished metal......... GET NEW ONES.....If you pc'd your lowers..... get new ones. Play it safe.

The bushings are usually some type of coated alloy, teflon other stuff, I dont know for sure, but I know its a coated metal, not polished.




As far as painting the 40's, Buddy of mine did his like this

Remove lowers, remove seals.

Was thoroughly with dish soap and water to remove dirt and oil.

Now he took some wood dowels, and lathed them to fit in place of the seals, used a little rubber coat on the dowels to get a good seal in place of where the upper seal goes, basically making a nice plug with a handle.

smaller dowels same process for the bottm side.

400 grit to scuff evely.....dry at this point. no wet sanding. wash again with dish soap and water..... plugs in to keep it out of the lowers now, you dont want the runoff from the sanding inside your lowers. dry with air, let sit over night.

now at this point, depeneding on your paint, you may, or may not want to use some base layer primer. but your basically ready to paint, do graphics etc.

clear if needed, let cure, reassemble









Oh wet sanding, usually used when smoothing your filler primer, and also used to color sand.

Color sanding..... snoothing of orange peel post clear coat. Requires a polish job after color sanding to get your shine and gloss back.
 
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J

JKS

Chimp
Feb 26, 2008
50
0
JKS said:
Im about to paint my 40 metallic black. I sanded it with 320 to prep it for the filler primer, I will use the filler primer mostly where its nicked, then sand it with 600. Then I will paint 1 coat, let dry, wet sand with 1000 grit, paint another coat, wetsand with 2000 grit. Then I will clear coat. Will post pics when its finished and with the 2009 decals.:monkeydance:
Click to expand...
In the process of my fork painting, I found out I did not need to wetsand anything. After sanding the primer I applied a total of 6 light coats of paint to get the coverage completed. I let it dry overnight and did 3 light coats of clearcoat. After 3 more days of letting it harden I will apply the decals. The decals must adhere for 24 hours. After that I can buff the surrounding areas for high shine and to work out any imperfections. I did all this with duplicolor paint. It worked great and looks stunning, I cannot wait for the finished product.


Ready for paint.

Final before decals and buffing.
 
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?

?????

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2005
1,678
2
San Francisco
I stripped the powder coat off last night and found that there was still what looked like a layer of primer that did not come off of the fork? After standing it down some sections of shiny metal started to show through. Is it possible that the tal-strip didn't remove a primer layer that was on the fork?
 
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W

Wilson

Chimp
Feb 17, 2007
41
0
Here's what I've done to my Boxxer.

Think I would need to clean the dust out of my bike hehe...



And here's a sneak preview of my upcoming race rig !
 
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