Lower fork tube polishing

missionkz wrote: I tried the acetone with rags.... it doesn't hardly cut this stuff at all... this will be a lot of work with acetone and it can make me dizzy followed by puking.

They could be CLEAR ANODIZED.

You can remove anno with spray oven cleaner or a lye bath. Either one you can find at a home center. The lye will be with the drain cleaners labeled Roebic Crystal Drain Cleaner. Just add about a cup per 2 gallons of water. Let the part soak submerged, check every 15 min. see if the anno wipes off with a rag.

I did it the easy way,......I cheated, ..& just had everything chromed , :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Pete

Paint stripper, then polish. If corrosion is too much for polish, use sandpaper and work your way down to 1500 grit then polish. They come out better than chrome. Nothing better than polished aluminum. Do the same thing to the brake and clutch levers to remove the ugly yellowed plastic coating. The hard job is removing the black finish from fork legs on the later models. That stuff is tough. The plastic used on the older ones melts right off in a couple minutes using paint stripper. No need for power tools, all can be done easily by hand.

Also,
if you don't want to clear coat after polishing but want to protect the aluminum and reduce the amount of cleaning and polishing afterwards, there is a product called Sharkhide that "seals" the aluminum........its rubbed on

Nice results. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the comment. Do you periodically sell other KZ forks?...and if so, how much?

Whoa this is just what I needed! My forks are nasty looking!

Nessism wrote: If you want a "brushed" finish like OEM, then take some 800 grit sandpaper or gray scotchbrite pad and apply uniform strokes in the desired direction.

That's why I do and it comes out nice, looks stock-ish. Hawaii's air is humid and salty. The best way for me to keep the fork lowers looking good is clear powder coat.

I bought a Sears Craftsman powder coat kit on Amazon a few years ago. All you need is a small convection oven to bake items like fork lowers. I'll post pics later. It's still dark outside here.

Clean the lowers thoroughly with acetone before baking the powder coat.

Paint stripper and a really good block sanding to get things flat/straight before polishing.
Stay away from using a dremel to polish aluminum parts unless you have lots of practice,way too easy to put dips/waves in parts.

polishing is taking the scratches out of the scratches out of the scra...... be systematic and clean. remove all buffing compounds before using the next finer compound and dont contaminate your wheels keep them in a baggie when not in use.

Good point 9er. Many people don't think of separate secure storage for various buffing tools to keep them from airborne dust contamination etc. which do affect the achievement of fine flashy highly polished finishes.

Which polishing compound seems to work the best?