Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

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 Post subject: Fork Leg polishing??
PostPosted: Thu May 11, 2006 5:02 am 
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Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:21 pm
Posts: 123
Location: Gloucester, England
Guys

Whats the best polish or technique you have come across for bringing the fork legs up to a nice finish please?

I intend to race the bike and not show it but I dont want the forks to look dull and out of place compared to the other resto parts.

many thanks


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 11, 2006 12:39 pm 
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Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:00 pm
Posts: 48
Location: Maryland,USA
Start to take the big nicks out with a small, fine file...Then go over the hole leg with strips of 240 grit, then 400, then 000 steel wool, then 0000 steel wool...Its pretty time consuming, but you'll get a close to factory look.After that I had them clear powdercoated.eL

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1974 Honda CR250M
1979 Honda CBX SS


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 11, 2006 12:49 pm 
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Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2004 10:20 pm
Posts: 906
Location: San Clemente, CA
If the original lacquer is on the forks, before sanding remove that with Aircraft Remover. Blue can, white letters, bottom shelf in the paint section at Pep Boys.

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Michael Stiles
1979 Honda CR250R Elsinore | 2006 Husqvarna SM510R | 2007 Service Honda CR500R-AF


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu May 11, 2006 3:16 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 6:47 pm
Posts: 4
Location: Ann, IL
I have good luck polishing AL after giving a wet sanding with 220# --> 320# --> 400# then just buff with some brown rouge on a buffer then followed with some mothers....this will give a mirror finish. after racing simpley clean all dirt from it and wipe it down with mothers as needed to keep the shine on it. I have had good results with a 4" buff wheel in a small benchtop drill press. I need to rebuild my forks here shortly once my bike becomes a roller again (trying to limit how torn apart it is at once) and I will give a write up on the process I use (granted I will be using a 8" buffer to do it)

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1975 MT250
1975 CB550
1993 RM80 (for sale)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2006 4:56 am 
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Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:41 pm
Posts: 44
Hi there,
I just did the fork legs on my '74 MT250. Here's what I did:
- I used a Dremel (rotary tool) wire brush to take off the rough stuff
- I then used 400 water paper with WD-40
- I then used 1000 water paper with WD-40
This gave me a dull finish which is all I was looking for. I guess I could finish it off with a clear coat, but I heard that it may yellow the finish.
Newfie

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Newfie
1974 MT250
1974 MR50
1975 CB750F
http://spaces.msn.com/members/andrewmer ... photoalbum


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