[jebfour]

Some of you may have read how I crashed and put some really nice scrapes in one of the stanchions of my fork in this thread…

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162652

Well taking the advice of those on RM on decided to do my best at a repair……

First I wet-sanded the area with 500 grit to take down some of the “really bad spots”

I really tried to keep the sandpaper cylindrical around the stanchion so that there wouldn’t be any “flat spots”


I got some nail polish as recommended…

I applied and reapplied this stuff. I made sure that everything was clean before applying each time.

After sanding however, things really didn’t look (or feel) much better.

I chalked this up to the scrapes being too deep for the nail polish to fill them in. I then brought out an old friend of mine…..JB Weld. I applied the JB Weld to the area and let it set for 24 hours.

By this time I’m scared to death….after all I just used JB Weld on the stanchion of my fork! I started wet-sanding with 500 grit and almost immediately switched to 1200 grit. The scrapes were filled in pretty darn good…..

The color didn’t really look that hot however, so I tried putting the nail polish over it again just for aesthetics.

I let it dry and then LIGHTLY wet-sanded the area until it was smooth. After all that sanding however, the surrounding area was pretty dull so I polished it with this stuff (what I had in the garage)…

The finished product:

Well it doesn’t look perfect, but it is pretty smooth – and much better than it was to start with. I hope that this is helpful to someone, but please take into account that I had no idea what I was doing and it you screw up your fork by following this thread…..don’t blame me!!!

Jeb4

 

[Alfred]

Glad you got it smoothed out, Jeb.

Scuffs are fine on a dh bike.

 

[w00dy]

that actually looks pretty sick, I think I'll do that to my fork!

 

[renorider40]

Looks good. Nice repair. I'll keep it in mind if i ever damage my stancions.

 

[Transcend]

Just sharpie them black. Fixing the scrapes is what matters.

 

[N8 v2.0]

Glad you got it smoothed out, Jeb.

Scuffs are fine on a dh bike.

Call me 'crazy' but your posting style is very very very familiar.....


neaky: neaky:

 

[jebfour]

Just sharpie them black. Fixing the scrapes is what matters.

Good Idea! Consider that done..

 

[mastercycleman]

if you havent already done it, i wouldnt use sharpie, as it will look purplish. Go to an arts and crafts store,such as aron brothers, and get your self a black paint maker. about 2 bux, but i think it should look much better tha a shapie

 

[Transcend]

if you havent already done it, i wouldnt use sharpie, as it will look purplish. Go to an arts and crafts store,such as aron brothers, and get your self a black paint maker. about 2 bux, but i think it should look much better tha a shapie

Even better idea.

 

[1000-Oaks]

Or just spray paint the whole fork pink, and wrap duct tape around the stanchions to protect them for next time!


I shouldn't talk, I spent half the day trying to get my POS back into shape for riding...and have a long way to go. Put on new tires/wheels with Maxxis strips and Stan's goo, changed the fork oil and revalved it (then after putting it back together found it needs a new top-out bumper ASAP), replaced the front deraileur cable, new bashring, replaced broken parts on e13 DRS, discovered that the rear deraileur is way screwed up, still need to swap rear rotor to new wheel, cut new seatpost, re-index crooked stem, etc. Who knows what else I'll find.

Didn't realize it was in such sorry shape when I parked it a year and a half ago.

 

[SteezyWeezy]

the paint pen is a good idea for sure

 

[Percy]

Nice work, I did something similar, using some uber-resin I had lying around, when I scraped one of my old MX6 stanchions.

I wouldnt bother with the paint marker, the seals and bushings will probably remove the paint in double quick time, and may get damaged while doing it!

 

[jebfour]

Or just spray paint the whole fork pink, and wrap duct tape around the stanchions to protect them for next time!

Come on man....don't you think that I tied that first???

I shouldn't talk, I spent half the day trying to get my POS back into shape for riding...and have a long way to go. Put on new tires/wheels with Maxxis strips and Stan's goo, changed the fork oil and revalved it (then after putting it back together found it needs a new top-out bumper ASAP), replaced the front deraileur cable, new bashring, replaced broken parts on e13 DRS, discovered that the rear deraileur is way screwed up, still need to swap rear rotor to new wheel, cut new seatpost, re-index crooked stem, etc. Who knows what else I'll find.

Didn't realize it was in such sorry shape when I parked it a year and a half ago.

I hate stuff like that...nothing is easy! Pehaps you should break that thing out a little more often

Give me a call after this weekend. Weird Terry and I are going to try to go back in the next few weeks.....

BTW to everyone else - glad that this thread may have been of some use to you!

 

[golgiaparatus]

Nice work man... My first thought would have been to try Epoxy, but that seems to have done the job really well. I'll remember that if I ever scrape my stanchons deep.

 

[weird terry]

Give me a call after this weekend. Weird Terry and I are going to try to go back in the next few weeks.....

Now our stanchions match!
Just got my new used frame today. Disassemble this weekend, powdercoat early next week, re-assemble and I'm ready to go.

 

[jebfour]

Now our stanchions match!
Just got my new used frame today. Disassemble this weekend, powdercoat early next week, re-assemble and I'm ready to go.

Email me a pic of the new ride.....

Can you use the DHX that you already have on it?

 

[weird terry]

Can you use the DHX that you already have on it?

No, different sizes. But I'm bidding on one on eBay.

 

[PatBranch]

Is there way I could dye the jb weld?

 

[jebfour]

I don't know if that would work...but I used a sharpie just because I had one in the garage and it doesn't look half bad! I was thinking that if I used some gloss black paint and then sanded it smooth that it would look really good, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.....

 

[urbaindk]

Is there way I could dye the jb weld?

I read in a jewelry design magazine (my wife designs jewerly as a hobby) that you can dye epoxy with watercolor pigments. This might work for JB Weld as long as it's a dark color. Head to the art supply store and pick up a tube and try it and see. Do a test first obviously. I'm guessing that just a little dab of color will do ya.

 

[PatBranch]

At ace, I asked someone the question. They said Tint All would probably work. What do monkeys think?

 

[davep]

Google 'epoxy pigment" the stuff is used all of the time. A hobby store or a boat building place or somewhere that sells epoxy resin would have it. Check you phone book.

 

[wood-dog]

I have never had a deep scratch on a stanchion before, let alone just a scratch. But now if it happens I will know what to do thanks to your thread. Thanks for sharing with us your experiences and and photos as you walked through this experience and it looks as though the days of scratched stanchions are numbered

 

[PatBranch]

Google 'epoxy pigment" the stuff is used all of the time. A hobby store or a boat building place or somewhere that sells epoxy resin would have it. Check you phone book.

Could I add that to jb weld? I tried this tint stuff and it seems to runny, and makes it too wet to dry.

 

[bizutch]

All pics have been deleted and I got a scratch down at the seal area. Anybody got another link with good pics and advice?

 

[CBJ]

I had a scratch on my old Boxxer. Made sure that it did not have any sharp edges and would stick out and damage seals. Rubbed the scratch with the round side of a screw driver to make sure nothing was sticking out. Never had a problem.