powdered fork tubes (new pic on page 3)

[acemoney]

sorry the final pics are not up here, hopefully soon but had a couple req's to post

first off, let me say sean did a great job of the tubes and they look SICK!! well.....it's like this, i gave myself a 50/50 chance of actually pulling it off and that is the exact result i got half good half bad....one is perfect and one.....not so perfect (scratch up quite a bit above the triples). it's staying on the bike so hopefully a little touch up paint will do the trick. i'm suprised i got ONE right hahaha. what i did was took a pry bar with a rubber tip on it and pryed them open, seem to open more then enough. the problem SEEMED to occur (i could be wrong) when my top and bottom triple on the one i scratched up seem slightly not lined up. the triples were more than enough scretched open and i got through the bottom triple just fine.....when putting it through the top triple it wasn't going through the middle it was touching on one side and had like a 1/2 inch on the other side of the hole in the triple, thus scratching when i banged it through. the first one i put in went in perfect and smooth second one not so much......would i do it again.....of course.....i would rather have scratched matching powdered forks than sticker-wrapped or non-matching anodized forks (that's just me though). this is my first bike so it more of a trial and error do this do that bike for me.....as of right now i'm losing the battle though because it's all together and don't run!!!!!!

p.s. i have pics of the tubes, pics of the forks together, but because of issues with the bike actaully running i have no pics of them on the bike yet. maybe someday if i get the bike running.

[TAftonomos]

I'm going to have to pull my entire bike apart.....we're all going to have blacked out bikes soon

[He Man]

I'm going to have to pull my entire bike apart.....we're all going to have blacked out bikes soon

+1, the powdercoat oven is officially up and running. tomorrow the first thing to get trial coated with my new PC gun is my passenger pegs 

Those parts look mighty yummy. may i ask what color that is, specifically?

[acemoney]

+1, the powdercoat oven is officially up and running. tomorrow the first thing to get trial coated with my new PC gun is my passenger pegs 

Those parts look mighty yummy. may i ask what color that is, specifically?

yummy is right, thanks. it's columbia coatings (columbia something, i'm pretty sure it was coatings) 20-30% gloss powder. hope that helps, my coater handled all that

[ProTeal55]

Thats all I needed..
I am getting my fork tubes coated this weekend 4 sure !

[corey]

i would keep an eye on your forks, the powder coating could crush inside the triple clamps and lead to some loose fork tubes...
i think that's why most forks are anodized and not coated...

[DucatiTorrey]

+1 i was thinking anadized for that same reason, same with the handlebar

[ProTeal55]

I think the reason OEM's do anodizing over powder is becasue it doesnt add thickness to the part (where Powdercoating does)..

[acemoney]

Thats all I needed..
I am getting my fork tubes coated this weekend 4 sure !

hahaha i like your thinking. if you do just be patient and careful putting them in and make sure the triples are lined up. i went in thinking i was going to scratch them (which i did to one of them) but i was mentally prepared for a couple scratches and didn't really care. i'd say yes do it if at worse case you can handle some scratches, and like they say, pray to the bike gods you don't scratch them. like i said, to me powder with a couple scratches with touch up paint looks better than and bike full of vinal tape or unmatch anodized forks.  the thing is......I IF CAN INSTALL ONE WITH ABSOULUTELY NO SCRATCHES (and i'm as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to motorcycles) then a guy who actually knows a bike should be able to accomplish it. good luck!

[He Man]

you should of tried using graphite powder, might of helped. or even babypowder.

im tempted to do this, but i want gold forks, and andized gold looks much better than PC gold!

Still dying to see how it looks like on the bike mate!

[ProTeal55]

I think we are going to lube the forks up with vasoline or something before we attempt to get them thru the triple's (good idea eh ? )..
And if I do scratch one of them, I have another reason to put another Half Fast Chicago sticker on my bike 

Will post pics as soon as I get them on the bike (promise)...

[DucLeone]

can you fit a pece of paper between the fork tube and the Triples?
slide the fork within the paper and then pull it out

[DucatiTorrey]

im tempted to do this, but i want gold forks, and andized gold looks much better than PC gold!

+1!!!!!

[TiAvenger]

Wedge you triple where it bolts, but not to much, and wrap the forks with parchment or wax paper. Put through triple, remove paper, remove wedges.

Bolt and go. 

[acemoney]

I think we are going to lube the forks up with vasoline or something before we attempt to get them thru the triple's (good idea eh ? )..
And if I do scratch one of them, I have another reason to put another Half Fast Chicago sticker on my bike 

Will post pics as soon as I get them on the bike (promise)...

i thought about using lube and my buddy who helped was suggesting it but in my crazy mind i was thinking that a possible scratch trumps me always wondering if there is lube between my triple and fork (but what do i know really).  he's still talking about "i think if we did it would have worked.....maybe a KY water based lube so it dry up quicker". ALL i can say is ONE went in perfect (with no lube, no wax paper, no nothing but hammering and prybar between the triples) and one got scratches above the triple.......so if i myself, who has never changed oil in a car, don't even understand how a bike works, knows nothing about powder coat, have no good tools, no knowledge of anything, can get one in perfect there should be no reason that all these old timers should be talking about how hard it is to do (unless of course it was beginners luck).