Morning all

I have a set of forks that will be changing the lowers on shortly to 15mm & will changing the colour when I do. It would be nice to have the crown (?) repainted at the same time so wondered how much of a pita it would be. Would I be able to take the uppers to a local spray shop to do after wrapping up the stanchions or maybe a DIY job? Failing that any recommendations of where to send them?

Cheers all

I did it once, many years ago. Used Plastikote spray from Wilkinsons. It goes on quite thick, & stays fairly flexible to resist stone chips unlike cellulose car spray (“knacker-lacquer”), that chips easily as its quite thin. Just sand down lightly to give it a key, & use a primer. Have to remove any oil/grease obviously so good clean with meths / turps before painting. Best done somewhere dry, doesnt have to be warm just no moisture in the air.

Cool, sounds straight forward enough. Would you advise completely stripping the existing paint it just roughing it with sand paper to act as a primer? If completely stripping are car primers ie halfords ok to use & finally would in the shed in this line of weather be ok?

I’d be inclined to sand out damage but otherwise just key in the old paint- it’ll give a good base for the new paint, better than taking it all off unless it’s badly damaged.

Oh yeah, and another -1 for celly car paint, unsuitable for this. (my motorbike has a crater in the front fairing caused by a particularily hard bumblebee, proved stronger than the clearcoat and basecoat!) Hammerite probably also not much cop, it chips quite easily.

Generally better to spray in the warm if you can.

Right oh, rough up and give a blast with some plastikote in the kitchen when the missus is out it is then 😉

I plan to wrap the stanchions and steerer in newspaper with some masking tape securing it at the top. I figured that I can use IPA to wipe away any sticky residue left afterwards. I was going to see if something like a 2p would fit in the cap holes to stop any paint ingress there.