Cost effective ways to tart up a fork??

The fork leg is like this after being rubbed on a pedal on a rack. Other wants it cosmetically nicer.

As it’s magnesium it will need rubbing down, acid etching, painting etc which takes time and ££££££

Any ideas to tart up on the cheap for him?

Thinking plain black vinyl to wrap the leg and fresh decals. 

Any issues?

Obviously invisiframe type vinyl needs a flat surface, this is not!!! 

Give me ideas!!

I’m not convinced that the scratch isn’t a bigger issue as it’s quite deep and sharp 🤦

Black duct tape is easiest :)
Otherwise I would be looking a spray can of self etching primer and one of colour.  Pick a colour to match the bike.  Shouldn’t be that expensive to do yourself is it?

It needs replacing really let’s be honest. I know it’ll be expensive though.

Beyond that I’d buy a black rattle can, some new decals and not worry about the finish too much.

That’s what I said, looks v.deep and the central line looks like it’s got crack potential

Painting forks is really hard tbh. Lot of work, lots of funky shapes, and you need to be really cleanroom clean about the internals, and after all that no matter how good a job you do it’ll be weaker than the factory finish. I think you’re on the right track with tape/plain black sticker material- give it a little prep, take off the stickers at the bottom, it’ll be really obvious but it’ll be look better than any local paint repair. It’s the only way I’d do it, put it that way.

Can’t really see anything to worry about in the scratch but it’s hard to tell from pics.

Sheet of stickers.

I had sugar skulls on my forks for years, because why not 😀

There are loads of other Sheets.

It was still tricky wrapping the forks (pikes) as they had bulges half way down the leg

I’d sand, prime and rattle can the bare area, and then fit new Slik decals, you’ll get the main decal and the FIT4 one. painted bit won’t be perfect, but decals can mostly cover it.

Are you doing this for money? Like, as a business?

You need to learn to turn things down. I’d only consider that as a DIY project if I’d borked my own fork and I had nothing better to do. If someone brought it to my workshop hoping for a solution I’d tell them no chance.

@sharkattack it’s in addition to the paid work buddy 

I’ve told the owner that I’m a mechanic not an artist

This is more to save his skin (regular customer) as he messed up 🤣🤣

I’d personally not repair or even attempt to cover that .blown up on the mac it doesn’t look good close up. 

You’ll pick up some lowers either ebay or pinkbike 

Sequins ?

I wouldn’t touch that for anyone else (or myself for that matter) paid or not.   

A failure there is going to be ugly.  Just not worth the risk.

I’m not an engineer so maybe it’s not that bad.  

I’ve just put the image on my TV, it doesn’t look that bad imho, there’s filler for filling little chips and scratches on magnesium car wheels, I’d just give it a bit of a sand, touch up the area with some primer to seal it and cover it with some black vinyl.

Plastidip?

Didn’t a member on here have an actual hole in their lowers a while back and DIY repaired it, or did I imagine it.

Meh.

That’d be an in-situ job for me. Sand down, including edges of paint, automotive acid etch primer in a rattle can, then an appropriate gloss automotive black paint.

Probably about 15 quid in cans if you shop around, plus cost of new decals if you were that way inclined.

Black AMS fork guard. Lightly sand the affected area to remove any lumps, apply AMS without really pressing hard on the worst bits. Will look like it never happened.