Got a half baked idea that I want orange forks.

Anyone out there in STW land done this themselves and got half decent results? If so, any tips? Thinking split lowers and uppers, strip decals, knock back the current finish with wet n dry (they’re currently white), mask everything off, couple of coats of colour, couple of coats of clear?

Or should I [a] forget the whole idea, or strip the forks down properly and find a professional?

Go for it! What could possibly go wrong??

I did, regretted it- but I had to go down to metal because the old paint was so damaged, and most of my issues were down to bad adhesion on the magnesium alloy, even with an etch primer. If you’ve got good paint then that’s a non-issue.

Bike forks get a pretty hard time so you’ll need to get a very sturdy finish, what clear are you thinking? I don’t think singlepack is tough enough tbh, or at least the one I used (upol I think, not 100%) wasn’t, but I’ve been using acrylics for the first time recently and though it scratches pretty easily it seems harder to chip. Haven’t used it on any really hard used parts but I’m pleasantly surprised

Or o’course you can get 2k aerosols, or you might have a gun, who knows? But even then, I kind of draw the line at cyanide 🙂

esselgruntfuttock – Member
Go for it! What could possibly go wrong??

Woohoo! The answer I obviously wanted!

Whether it’s the right one is another thing altogether…

I did mine some years ago after seeing monkeyboyjc’s thread, Link
I colour matched my rebas to Singular Swift blue with good results, monkeyboyjc was also kind enough to send me the jpeg of the decal so I could get some made up

Interesting. I would have thought you could achieve a good, hard-wearing finish with a bit of time and effort (without spending £55 on rattle cans 😯 Though admittedly the Singular looks nice).

Has anyone ever tried this stuff? Looks like it should work pretty well if you could apply it appropriately.
http://www.plastidip.co.uk/

I’ve done it and while the finish was good it just isn’t that tough and chipped easily, didn’t use a clear coat though. Probably take them to a powder coater next time.

Fork legs scratch and scar up pretty easily, no matter what the coating. I changed some Revs from white to black by de-stickering them, keying the old paint with wet n dry, degreasing them with IPA. The seal end of the lowers was stuffed with kitchen paper, and a careful gob of grease spread on the inside lip to stop any overspray adhering to the seal seat. I hung them upside down from an old work stand using a coat hanger through the dropouts and sprayed them in several thin coats using plasticote from Wilko. A set of new stickers and I’d suggest they look pretty good. Total cost about twenty quid.

I’ve done a few pairs for myself over the years but always used good quality two pack paints and spray gear also two back clear every time to help keep it u chipped and in place. I did my frame forks and stem and a few other parts.

I’ve done it and while the finish was good it just isn’t that tough and chipped easily, didn’t use a clear coat though

That’ll be your problem there then… If you don’t clear coat your not protecting the paint.

I did mine a couple of years ago – link
Ended up selling the bike as ive gone with the big wheel crowd but i still miss that bike….

I’d say the quality of the paint is going to be your biggest issue. It’ll look chipped and scarred in weeks