Pitted forks? Might try this....

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98Bronco
Cucciolo - the Lil Pup
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:44 am
Location: Raleigh, NC

Pitted forks? Might try this....

Post by 98Bronco »

I was looking at a veritable moonscape of pitting on the fork tubes off my 98cc Bronco - all the while thinking I would need to have a machine shop create new ones $$$, when I thought of a fix....

Taking on the rust: Get some naval jelly and work into the pitting to kill the rust. Now, the stuff I purchased claimed it "disintegrated" the rust, I suppose by some measure it does, but after the initial treatment I'd suggest using a combination of sandpaper, steel wool, and wire brush to remove the off-color metal. This took about 5 or 6 treatments to wholly remove the rusted material.

Now, given that the surface of the fork tubes needs to be smooth (for the rubber water seal on the lower half) I broke out with some JB Weld =).

Smoothing the surface again: Mix together a liberal amount of JB Weld, apply generous amounts to the pitted areas, smoothing it with the flat side of a hacksaw blade, making sure to fill the holes, but not leave large amounts to later sand off.

Allow 18 hours for a full cure, then sand with some 150 grit..... here's the important part! Only sand till you begin to see the high spots of the metal in the areas where the pitting was bad, follow up with some 300 or so grit for the final smooth job. They came out great, and hold a seal now!

Looks like I'll be doing something similar to the rims, time to lose the chrome & rust, then paint =).

Hope this helps someone.

Gordon
heisk
Cucciolo - the Lil Pup
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:37 am

Re: Pitted forks? Might try this....

Post by heisk »

Took a few years for a reply....but this is exactly what I was looking for. An inexpensive way to remove the pitting on my right front fork. Better yet? I already have naval jelly.

Thanks! Definitely appreciate the info!


Jeremy
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