I'm having my forks rebuilt, and while they are apart I was going to have the lower legs powder coated (the aluminum part) to clean them up. They are sort of bubbling and are stained from brake dust. My problem is that the owner of the shop cautioned me that it may damage the forks because the steel tubes are pressed into the aluminum, and when baked in the oven may cause an issue and cause it to eventually leak. The powder coater said he's done hundreds and never had an issue. So I sort of don't know what I should do now. What do you all think? They are powder coated from the factory, so I would think it is ok, but then again maybe they are pressed together after powder coating...
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Problem with powder coating my forks
- Thread starter snrusnak
- Start date
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If I remember correctly the steel tubes are "threaded into the aluminum. When I was looking at having mine done here in Idaho the guy said he would have to remove the steel tubes before baking them to eliminate the very issue you're talking about. Maybe look into a second opinion.
Well I'm sort of in a pickle here now.... I found some very slight pitting/corrosion on the fork tubes in the bottom ~3" or so. I can get it all off probably with some fine wet sanding or maybe even steel wool, but it will leave the pitting behind. I don't think it'll cause an issue (and doubt the forks ever compress that far anyway), but now I'm wondering with this, and the possibility of them leaking from the powder coating, if I should buy new ones. They are expensive though...but I'd hate to pay to get them coated and then they leak and I wasted that money.
New lower fork legs are surprisingly somewhat cheap (IMO) from HD. $163.00 each, not too too bad. I think I'm just going to buy them, it'll resolve the pitting issue, the possible leaking after heat issue, and I won't have to have them coated anyway.
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