I've got my eye on a set of forks that are exactly what I'm looking for, but a bit tatty. As I think I'll probably keep my Solaris for ages, I was thinking of getting them resprayed to match. Anyone had this done? Anywhere you'd recommend. I'm conscious that it'll have to be a spray job rather than powder coat. I'd like the crown and lowers painted.
I did my old Talas forks when I serviced the lowers, only satin black mind, no fancy colour matching. Just removed the seals, cleaned/degreased inside & out with isopropyl alcohol (used a short length of wooden broom handle & rag to do the lowers. Gave the exterior surfaces a gentle key with a plastic pan scrub too. Masked up and sprayed the lowers / crown with Rustoleum Hardhat paint. Seems ok. I haven't bothered with any fresh decals, but they are available.
You could get automotive acrylic paint in spray tins colour-matched to your Solaris if you wanted to do it yourself - I did the centres of some GSXR wheels years ago to match the purple anodised highlights on my streetfighter. The colour was spot on.
Done a few sets. Used Plastikote as its thicker than Knacker-Lacquer. If your not after perfection it's good enough.
Generally as with any spray job preparation is the key,the better the prep the better the end result.
I'd strip the lowers totally bear of any paint,degrease them then prime them with some etch primer,you can buy the Upol stuff from Halfords in a rattle can.
Give it a couple of coats of this ,leave for a good day or two to harden and allow any solvent to fully dry out/evaporate then go over with your top coat.
Several light coats will look better than 1 or 2 heavy coats,if theres any dry edges or orangepeel to the finish as long as you have put enough coats of paint on you should be able to flat it with a bit of we n dry and then buff back to a gloss finish with rubbing compound or T-cut.
I think I did a thread on this.... EDIT: here you go [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/singualr-hummingbird-fork-respray ]link[/url] - looking back, sorry about the spelling, it was a bit of a rushed thread.
Cheers all. They look great JC.
Unfortunately I lack the time, patience and skill to do it myself. Can anyone recommend a paint shop to do it for me?
Whereabouts are you ?
I resprayed some 36s a few years back, did it all properly - stripped down, primer, colour, laquer, custom decals.
Got some tatty Pikes on my hardtail, tempted to respray them, but just remove the decals, degrease, put some newspaper over the stantions, and go wild with a can of Plastidip, then peel off the excess.
Whereabouts are you ?
Norwich. Was thinking about getting them Pushed at the same time, so was thinking that I might ask TF to disassemble them, send the bits somewhere and get them sent back to TF. Might be a bit convoluted, now I come to write it down.