Refinished a Fork

[Dead Man]

Howdy

Little project I did today

This Air Rail steel-steerered fork came on a frame I bought from a dude. The fork was kind of a chipped up piece of crap and a little on the heavy side (but surprising light at 550g for having a fricken steel steerer), but after a couple weeks of looking for a replacement fork, and even buying one from a dude remotely and having it show up NOT 1", I decided to strip this one down and see if it's salvageable.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a before pic (hadn't really intended to share), but here's a couple post-strip pic, demonstrating the assembly of these mixed material forks... Looks like they epoxy it together then use some bondo-like material to smooth out the seam, sand, clear coat, then paint the crown. I figured I'd duplicate, but in something a little warmer than black.

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab6/bkb0000/IMG_06791_zpsj42tajpw.jpg
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab6/bkb0000/IMG_06801_zpspzoimswl.jpg

Here's after the "oiled bronze" part up high

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab6/bkb0000/IMG_06811_zpsngyrzahp.jpg

And here's after some clear coats

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab6/bkb0000/IMG_06831_zps1bdkvjiv.jpg

I could have gotten the clear coat perfectly smooth with some sanding between coats, but this project does not call for the highest quality paint. Little orange-peel is fine with me.

Piece of crap made new... it actually looks great now. None of the chips went into the carbon.. so she's sound. Glad I will be able to use it instead of sending it off to the landfill, in the end.

Off topic, but coincidental - The new King crown race slipped on loose. It didn't exactly rattle, but I wasn't comfortable with a crown race I didn't have to beat into the steerer base. I remembered a trick I read somehow once upon a time - I found my center punch, and punched 8 evenly spaced divots around the base, to displace some metal and give the crown race something to bear against. Worked perfect... had to use a crown race set to get it back on. I kind of wish I'd done more punches, but if it ever loosens up again it won't be hard to add more later.

That is all. :)

[PacNW2Ford]

FYI, King makes baseplates with undersized holes to fit forks such as yours.

[Mr_Gimby]

Wow, that looks great! Nicely done:hello: What did you use to strip it?

[Dead Man]

What did you use to strip it?

I started with citristrip, and it got the topmost clearcoat off as well as the decals, but did basically nothing for the bottom layers nor the black paint on the crown. I actually hand sanded all of that. Was a little tedious, and I never even really intended to go all the way down to bare carbon, but I couldn't get the chips to even out. So I went all the way down, for an even finish.

[Peter P.]

Nice job. Nice little project. The fact you only painted the crown and performed a little fade job was a creative thought.

[bobswire]

Nicely done, a man after my own heart.

[Dead Man]

The fact you only painted the crown and performed a little fade job was a creative thought.

I can't take any creative credit for that - it's actually exactly how it was painted before, just with black. I was a little surprised that it actually worked, though.... steady hand and a rattle-can can do more than you'd think

FYI, King makes baseplates with undersized holes to fit forks such as yours.

Interesting... so there's more than one type o' 1" threadless, eh?

[jds108]

Interesting... so there's more than one type o' 1" threadless, eh?

There are two 1" headset standards nowadays, but that's not what the King piece is addressing. They make one-off crowns for exactly your situation.

[cmbicycles]

Interesting... so there's more than one type o' 1" threadless, eh?

27.0 & 26.4 are the two usual crown race sizes for 1" steerers, but yours may be undersized for either one. Hammer and punch knurling will help, there are some loctite type products for this issue as well.
Looks good, show us pics with the frame too.

[Dead Man]

This is actually my first experience with 1" threadless.... guess I should have done a little research first! Stored for future use, along with the knurling trick. A tighter race is obviously a more elegant option.

[PacNW2Ford]

There are two 1" headset standards nowadays, but that's not what the King piece is addressing. They make one-off crowns for exactly your situation.

Correct. I used one on a 1" WoundUp fork where the standard baseplate was a loose fit.

"Baseplates with undersize bores of up to minus .2mm (-.008") are also available to accommodate non-conforming fork steerer tube mounting dimensions."