re anodize forks uppers

Edited Date/Time 2/15/2016 12:58am

Planning to re anodize my showa forks on my RM250 K5.

I have read how to strip the anodizing off.

But then I want to polish them like new again. How to do it right ? 450s that frow rocks on them..
Can´t find any forum tips.

All the suspension companies don´t mention that they are polish forks, but do or ?

Hard anodize is the way to do it..
But how can RCH forks look so shiny flo yellow?
Hard anodize just makes "dull" colors
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JBernard_401
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2/9/2016 12:55pm
They aren't hard anodized. just normal type II.
I would let the guys anodizing them do any fine polishing, as ANY imperfection the finish will show up more with ano on it. They will also probably be equipped with the right polishing tools/pad and compound. And on top of that, doing a cylinder is hard, since you'll be putting all the pressure on 1 point when using a wheel, so easy to mess up.
Dtat720
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2/9/2016 2:27pm
I put mine in a manual lathe with soft jaws and a nylon tail body and sand and polish while it spins. Nice and even finish. If you dont have a manual lathe, pay the anodizer extra for the polish and prep
Premix
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2/9/2016 3:58pm
Do not put them in a lathe. They oxidize in a heartbeat. Get the re-ano'd they can add brighter to the gold for the shiny look
JBernard_401
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2/9/2016 11:22pm
Dtat720 wrote:
I put mine in a manual lathe with soft jaws and a nylon tail body and sand and polish while it spins. Nice and even finish...
I put mine in a manual lathe with soft jaws and a nylon tail body and sand and polish while it spins. Nice and even finish. If you dont have a manual lathe, pay the anodizer extra for the polish and prep
hey you have an ano shop right? do you have a contact i could get, i have some supplies you may be interested in.

The Shop

2/10/2016 12:39am

No I don´t have an ano shop.
But I talked to the ano shop that are suppose to do my forks, and they are not doing any polishing.

so they strip the ano off
ship to me
I polish (don´t know how yet ,)
send back to the ano shop

The Company are not in the motocross World so they are not used to polishs things.

Maybe I´ll start a ano shop because of all the problems here in Sweden. Have a tireshop to all kinds of vehicle now. Expand the buiness Wink
send info to henrik@gummidepan.se

Typ II or type III ano ?

More colors to choose from
2/10/2016 3:44am
Dirtdemon wrote:
No I don´t have an ano shop. But I talked to the ano shop that are suppose to do my forks, and they are not doing...

No I don´t have an ano shop.
But I talked to the ano shop that are suppose to do my forks, and they are not doing any polishing.

so they strip the ano off
ship to me
I polish (don´t know how yet ,)
send back to the ano shop

The Company are not in the motocross World so they are not used to polishs things.

Maybe I´ll start a ano shop because of all the problems here in Sweden. Have a tireshop to all kinds of vehicle now. Expand the buiness Wink
send info to henrik@gummidepan.se

Typ II or type III ano ?

More colors to choose from
Please do, I have looked everywhere for my mx parts, and can't find shit or just shops that says plainly no..
2/10/2016 8:30am
This is how my forks turned out. Your forks shouldn't come out dull because the tubes are machined. Your shock body will come out dull if you ano it because it's a cast aluminum piece. Polishing the shock body will make finish come out brighter.

2/10/2016 9:14am
Just to be clear.

Hardanodizied and gold color.??

And polish before the new ano.

Anyone seen how professionals do their polishing? (FC, PRO CIRCUIT,RG3)
Dtat720
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2/10/2016 10:23am
You can get cast to ano like billet but you have to wet sand and polish like crazy beforehand. Problem is, the metalurgy is different so the color will not match, you can get close but not a match.

I have a cnc shop, close to 50 machines, mostly cnc, but i still have a handful of manual machines. I have no idea why it would be suggested not to put them in a lathe, ive done it several times with perfect results. I do inhouse anodizing, some for customers, some for my self. Heat treat, powdercoat, most anything i need or want i do inhouse.

If you have to polish them yourself, i would go with wet sanding and start around 800 grit since the machined surface is already nice. 800, then 1200, then 2000. Lightly sand do not use much pressure, you dont need to in order to achieve a nice finish. If you have a bench grinder or access to one, you can use a white cloth polishing wheel and green polishing compound to polish it out. You have to be very observant in doing this as you can easily get swirl marks polishing a round tube. Those swirls will show in the anodize finish.
mxb2
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Bowie, MD, USA
2/10/2016 10:38am
This is how my forks turned out. Your forks shouldn't come out dull because the tubes are machined. Your shock body will come out dull if...
This is how my forks turned out. Your forks shouldn't come out dull because the tubes are machined. Your shock body will come out dull if you ano it because it's a cast aluminum piece. Polishing the shock body will make finish come out brighter.

Who did the forks, ?
HackMan162
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Location
Austin, TX, USA
2/10/2016 12:50pm
This is how my forks turned out. Your forks shouldn't come out dull because the tubes are machined. Your shock body will come out dull if...
This is how my forks turned out. Your forks shouldn't come out dull because the tubes are machined. Your shock body will come out dull if you ano it because it's a cast aluminum piece. Polishing the shock body will make finish come out brighter.

Hard to tell for sure in the pic...are those ano'd Flo yellow, like the Suzuki Factory team forks and wheels? Or is it gold? If it's the yellow, do you know which dye color they used?
mxb2
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Location
Bowie, MD, USA
2/10/2016 1:06pm
This is how my forks turned out. Your forks shouldn't come out dull because the tubes are machined. Your shock body will come out dull if...
This is how my forks turned out. Your forks shouldn't come out dull because the tubes are machined. Your shock body will come out dull if you ano it because it's a cast aluminum piece. Polishing the shock body will make finish come out brighter.

HackMan162 wrote:
Hard to tell for sure in the pic...are those ano'd Flo yellow, like the Suzuki Factory team forks and wheels? Or is it gold? If it's...
Hard to tell for sure in the pic...are those ano'd Flo yellow, like the Suzuki Factory team forks and wheels? Or is it gold? If it's the yellow, do you know which dye color they used?
The rims are excel, factory yellow
HackMan162
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Location
Austin, TX, USA
2/10/2016 1:52pm
So any idea what the ano color code is?
2/10/2016 4:40pm
The rims are factory suzuki excel rims. The fork tubes were hard anodized yellow to try and closely match the rims. There is no specific color code like powder coating. Local anodizing shop did the work for me. Custom ordered the yellow dye. Make sure who ever does the forks tubes to watch the dipping time. To long dipping time will have forks turn out too golden not neon factory yellow.

Currently having these forks dlc coated and the lugs hard anodized black. Shock body is getting polished up and will be hard anodized brown to try and match factory Kashima colors with a dlc coated shaft as well. Pretty pumped.
JBernard_401
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Boulder, CO, USA
2/12/2016 2:22pm
Dirtdemon wrote:
Just to be clear.

Hardanodizied and gold color.??

And polish before the new ano.

Anyone seen how professionals do their polishing? (FC, PRO CIRCUIT,RG3)
no, you cant hard anodize color. hard is black/grey only.

its just normal anodizing.
2/12/2016 4:59pm
Dirtdemon wrote:
Just to be clear.

Hardanodizied and gold color.??

And polish before the new ano.

Anyone seen how professionals do their polishing? (FC, PRO CIRCUIT,RG3)
no, you cant hard anodize color. hard is black/grey only.

its just normal anodizing.
You can type 2 hard anodize with dye color
JBernard_401
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Location
Boulder, CO, USA
2/12/2016 5:02pm
You can type 2 hard anodize with dye color
can you show an example of something other than black/grey.
2/13/2016 12:10am

look what I found
pure happiness to polish outer tubes. More shiny than RCH...





Slosh 112
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Mackay QLD, AU
2/15/2016 12:58am
Before.






After






No problem with using a lathe to polish them, in fact I would say that its near impossible to do them another way. How would you get an even finish without a lathe. Took me an hour each leg, machined up a piece off aluminium with an OD that was a tight fit in the ID of the seal carrier and grabbed that with the 3 jaw chuck and put the cone centre up the other end to get it centre. I spun it up pretty quick started with 260 grit emery tape and then worked my way down the grades to 2000 grit wet and dry, then polished the F^@*k out of them with my preferred polish and a soft rag, wrapped them up in a soft towel and send them away. I didn't loose any diameter in the clamping areas.

Forks are done in Matte clear. Shock body, clevis, spring carrier, seal cap were done in hard ano black.
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