polishing forks

i just purchased a front end for my kz1000 project. the forks are in some rough shape shown in the photo. i came across this procedure on cleaning my forks. dows this sound like a good method?

Place the motorcycle on a stand or lift. Remove the brake calipers and front wheel from the forks. Using a socket wrench, loosen the pinch bolts on the upper and lower triple clamps. Slide the forks out from the bottom of the triple clamp. Set the forks on a clean work area.

2
Prepare the forks by removing the painted or anodized finish from the fork tubes. Spray the fork tubes with an aircraft-grade paint stripper to remove paint. Scrub any remaining paint off with steel wool. Remove anodized finishes with an oven cleaning agent followed by sanding with 220-grit sandpaper. Remove surface rust from the fork tubes using a 600-grit sandpaper.

3
Smooth the fork tube's surface using coarse 150-grit sandpaper. Dip the sandpaper in a mixture of water and a mild soap and sand the fork tube using a consistent back and forth motion. Smooth out any irregularities until the tube's surface is uniform.

4
Refine the fork tube's surface. Using a 300-grit sandpaper, sand the fork tube in the opposite direction used in the previous step to remove the sanding marks left by the coarser sandpaper. Repeat this step, alternating sanding directions and using increasingly finer sandpaper until all sanding marks have been removed.

5
Using a cloth buffing wheel and an electric drill, apply rouge or a similar metal polish to the fork tubes. Use light pressure on the buffing wheel to work the metal polish into the fork tubes. Continue until the fork tubes begin to shine. Replace the buffing wheel with a clean wheel and buff the fork tubes again to remove any remaining polish.

6
Repeat on the remaining fork tube and reinstall the forks onto the motorcycle.

It doesn't look like you have any anodizing to deal with, so you can skip the oven cleaner step. Also 150 grit wet or dry sandpaper is hard to find, I think 220 is the finest commonly available. Regular sandpaper will fall apart quick if you get it wet. You have to get paper that says "wet or dry" on the back. You probably already know this.

sand sand and sand some more, depends on if there are any gouges as to what grit u start with, mine went like this 80,100,150,220, 400 each time sand until previous grit marks disappear, then i went to 800 and started wet sanding, the 1000,1200, and then see where u are at. the buffer i tried left swirl marks so I'm hand polishing with Knob Polish,

seanbarney41 wrote:

It doesn't look like you have any anodizing to deal with, so you can skip the oven cleaner step. Also 150 grit wet or dry sandpaper is hard to find, I think 220 is the finest commonly available. Regular sandpaper will fall apart quick if you get it wet. You have to get paper that says "wet or dry" on the back. You probably already know this.

go to Lowes/HomeDepot they got it

Glass bead it or Soda blast it.
Air grinder with Schotch wheel, takes out the rough stuff
Wet sand it.
Only way to make it shine is with a machine buffer.
Here is set of 35 yr old legs I just sold to Australia.

z1kzonly wrote:

Glass bead it or Soda blast it.
Air grinder with Schotch wheel, takes out the rough stuff
Wet sand it.
Only way to make it shine is with a machine buffer.
Here is set of 35 yr old legs I just sold to Australia.

great picture:woohoo:

kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...0&limitstart=20#8770

kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...d=6&id=239980#240023

kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...=98785&catid=6#98785

z1kzonly wrote:

Only way to make it shine is with a machine buffer.
.

so u think so ???

great video.....

seanbarney41 wrote:

It doesn't look like you have any anodizing to deal with, so you can skip the oven cleaner step. Also 150 grit wet or dry sandpaper is hard to find, I think 220 is the finest commonly available. Regular sandpaper will fall apart quick if you get it wet. You have to get paper that says "wet or dry" on the back. You probably already know this.

i thought the gold color was anadized...no?

i thought urs were painted, mine had a yellowish film (anodize) on them that was a mother to get off, but they were not painted

ok maybe u do have some, that'll have to come off first

I can't see the picture good enough to tell, but there were two versions of forks used on Z1/KZ1000. From 1973 to 1978 they used aluminum with a plastic finish similar to what's on your clutch and brake levers. This plastic is easy to remove with paint stripper, then the forks can be sanded and polished as advised. In 1979 they switched to black forks, at least on the MKII and ST, the LTD probably still had aluminum as they reused old parts to build LTDs, but the black forks were an extremely tough finish that can't be removed without a lot of work. It does come off, but isn't going to happen with paint stripper and the like. Takes manual sanding or blasting then they can be polished up. No anodized forks ever on on old Kawasaki.