| Author | Message | ||
     Century_cycle |
I swapped headlights on my S1W and no longer use the original mounting ears. Unfortunately the upper fork tubes are discolored where the original ears were located (WP USD forks). I tried to clean them up with a scotch brite pad but wound up making them look worse. I don't want to replace them (too much $) so I was thinking about disassembling the forks and having the upper tubes re-anodized. Anyone have any experience with this? Any hidden things I need to watch out for? Thanks in advance for the help! Century Cycle | ||
| Al_lighton |
I've done it, but when I did it, I first stripped them past the anodize and polished them to a mirror shine, and THEN hard anodized them black. IT was a pain in the butt, because stripping the old hard anodize must be done very carefully. It doesn't remove easily, but once it is gone, the underlying aluminum gouges easily. It is a slow painstaking task. The inner is also hard anodized, and the anodizer had to seal the end of the tubes in order to anodize the outside of the tubes. It should be HARD anodized, not just anodized. Al | ||
| Century_cycle |
Hi Al, Thanks for the advice. Did you have any issues with fitting the tubes back into the trees after the hard anodizing? I'm concerned because I read that hard anodizing can be .001" - .004" thick (re - .002" - .008" addition to the OD of the tube). How did you strip the old anodizing? Thanks! Matt | ||
| Al_lighton |
No problems fitting them, but remember, I'd stripped the old anodizing off, and then some, getting them to a mirror shine. I'd bet they were smaller than they'd started when I was done. I used an air sander with scotchbrite wheels, followed by a buffing wheel. And a LOT of patience. It took several hours. Al | ||
| Cjburr |
Al_lighton, where did you get them anodized at ?? | ||
| Al_lighton |
Just a local anodizer in San Diego/National City. I drove them there, picked them up a couple days later. I can't find the receipt (it was about 5 years ago) and can't remember the name for sure, but I think it may have been: Southern Califonia Plating Co. 3261 National Avenue San Diego, CA 92113 PO Box 13338 San Diego, CA 92170 Tel: (619) 231-1481 (800) 201-1481 http://www.socalplating.com/ | ||
| Cjburr |
Thank you sir for the link. |
