How to paint your fork with pictures

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How to paint your fork with pictures
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flag ninjatarian
Posted: Jun 15, 2008 at 10:12 Quote
Here is step by step instructions on how to paint a fork-

STEP ONE: Remove the wheel and any bike components from the fork

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STEP TWO: Take the lowers off of your fork. You could tape around them but i think of that as cheating and this being the proper way, this will ensure a nice even finish. Most forks have a bolt at the bottom of each leg, unscrew these then slide the legs off

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STEP THREE: Remove any hardware from the fork. In this case there were rim brake bosses and seals, then comes the worst part, trying to remove stickers. No clues here, just elbow grease. Do not try to use a razor, forks are made with soft materials

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STEP FOUR: After your fork looks clean and shiny comes the part that will make you cringe. No matter how much you paint or what, it feels horrible to take sand paper to nice paint. I used 150 grit followed by 220

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STEP FIVE: Here comes the fun part, picking paint! I highly suggest using an automotive store with auto paint. Its made for this kind of thing more than regular spray all stuff. So off to the automotive parts store, and look at all the colors. The nice thing is you can pick more specific colors as well.

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STEP SIX: Now comes the spray time. I use a rim break bolt with a whole in it to put into my disc mounts and then run a wire through it. It allows it to hang for painting and drying.

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Primer goes on first, three thin coats usually does the trick.

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Now if your fox suspension painting the 40 then it looks like primer is where you can stop. But for the rest of us next comes your color coats. I had a pic but it came up as a black box on pinkbike so ill try uploading it again later

Here is the paint dried. I picked a unique paint that wrinkles when it dries giving it a texture. It only came in black but if you wanted color with texture you could use this, then put thin coats of a color over it. After that you want to do three layers of clear coat, two thin and then a final heavy one (but avoid runs). I did not need/want clear coat for this fork because of the textured paint

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STEP SEVEN: Remount everything then sit back and admire

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flag Cyclist-Abuse
Posted: Jun 15, 2008 at 10:17 Quote
What about clear coat? Though it looks good, my friend and I painted his handlebars yesterday and they turned out pretty good.
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Jun 15, 2008 at 10:18 Quote
Cyclist-Abuse wrote:
What about clear coat?

it is a good idea to use clear coat but because of the special textured paint i used it was not needed/prefered. ill add clear coat to the instructions anyway
flag t3kman
Posted: Jun 16, 2008 at 14:34 Quote
Also after every coat of paint I usually, use a bit of sandpaper and go over the coat of paint lightly, but don't do that on your last coat.
flag D0SM4N
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 14:21 Quote
thanks dude, ive been looking for a good tut on this. i was missing the primer
flag
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 14:32 Quote
in step three it should be: remove any hardware
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 16:13 Quote
drew44 wrote:
in step three it should be: remove any hardware
fixed
flag kickel
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 16:20 Quote
What about baking the paint dry i've heard of people doing this but not sure how it works but i think it gives a very durable finish. But your tutorial was great and well written good job now i gotta do this along with lowering my dj3 lol thanksBlank Stare
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 16:24 Quote
i DO NOT recommend doing that to any bike part. although it may not harm magnesium forks, aluminum is severely compromised from being reheated after it has already been factory treated. for this reason, it is also a bad idea to powder coat any aluminum bike parts since the process takes place around 400 degrees and aluminum is affected between 300-400 degrees
flag kickel
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 16:26 Quote
ninjatarian wrote:
i DO NOT recommend doing that to any bike part. although it may not harm magnesium forks, aluminum is severely compromised from being reheated after it has already been factory treated. for this reason, it is also a bad idea to powder coat any aluminum bike parts since the process takes place around 400 degrees and aluminum is affected between 300-400 degrees

I thought they baked things at like 115 for couple hours or sumtin thats how they do cars. Not sure though better not try that on anything important. Ill just stick to how you did it. That turned out really good
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 16:27 Quote
if they did that then wouldn't your bikes paint become invisible from just being outside on a hot summer day?
flag kickel
Posted: Jul 3, 2008 at 16:30 Quote
ninjatarian wrote:
if they did that then wouldn't your bikes paint become invisible from just being outside on a hot summer day?
k maybe its like 200 its not incredibly hot but hotter than the weather outside. ill try it sometime with my old handle bars and see what happens
flag ezekiel
Posted: Jul 4, 2008 at 9:41 Quote
kickel wrote:
I thought they baked things at like 115 for couple hours or sumtin thats how they do cars.

The only reason they do that on a professional level is to speed up the curing process. With automotive paints, curing can take the better part of 24 hours naturally. So they throw it in a heated booth and it can be cured and ready to sand/polish within a couple hours.

Since spray paints harden and cure much faster, this step really isn't necessary.
flag flikende
Posted: Apr 11, 2009 at 11:13 Quote
what if you want to put the stickers back on? or is that not really possible
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Apr 11, 2009 at 19:16 Quote
you can order new ones but the ones that come off come off in bits so they are junk
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