Hi Guys

Following a big step off and the bike hitting some concrete slabs.

One of the fork stanchions is gouged in two places, right in the sealing area, they are about 0.350 inches long, 50 thou wide. about 30 thou deep. I have blended the burred edges with a stone, however I think they will eventually cause the seals to leak.

Question, is it possible to fill the voids with araldite or solder, succesfully. Or any other fixes apart from rechrome/regrind to size.

The tubes are both new from the States only done 4 Trials Doh!!!!

Cheers

You could use JB weld, we use it to repair hydraulic rods, engine blocks, and what ever.

Super glue works on smaller nicks.

Fred

As the previous post suggests...JB Weld is an epoxy that works great for repairing metal. The forks should be cleaned well to remove any traces of oil from the scratch. THen the JB weld should be applied to just fill the gouge a little high - and then when the JB Weld has set you can carefully file it flush with the surface. A file may work best as it is flat and should not cut into the chrome on on the fork legs. If you can't get JB Weld where you live.....try and find an equivalent industrial epoxy. The slower an epoxy sets up.....generally makes it stronger.

I have heard recommended (I thought it was on here) using super glue, then fine cloth. Sounds like your gouges are bigger than glue, and JB weld may be the best shot. kcj

I've heard of people using Epoxy to repair pitted forks but have not done it myself but don't see why it would not be effective.

There is not alot to loose, you either repair them, get some new forks, or wreck your seals.

Someone elses description bellow:

You can do a bodge repair on pitted forks that is very effective although not all that aesthetic.

Firstly, clean all the rust off, down to bare metal, make sure you get rid of any flakes of chrome and scrape the rust out of the pits with a stanley knife blade.

Degrease the stanchions thoroughly using a solvent, you must completley remove all traces of oil clinging to them.

Now get some Araldite epoxy resin, it is improtant to use the original slow setting stuff (now marketed as precision?), NOT araldite rapide which absorbs water and swells over time.

Mix it up and skim over all the damaged parts of the fork stanchions, try to use as little as will fill the defects whilst still having it standing a little proud of the surface.

Leave to set for AT LEAST 24 hours.

Now using progressivley finer grades of wet and dry paper, polish down the araldite 'till it is perfectly smooth and level with the rest of the chrome surface, finish off with a cream polishing agent like autosol then a wax polish.

This works, I have done it many times. The critical parts are 1) How clean and grease free you get the surfaces. 2) The amount of elbow grease expended polishing.

Hi,

Thank you for the helpfull replies, I have filled the damaged areas with JB weld.

I have yet to try it out in anger, waiting for my own damaged leg to heal!!

I will post results on the outcome.

Rgds Roy

Hi.

Some feedback, after filling with JB weld as recommended by you guys, I rode my first event on Sunday there were plenty of fast forest tracks so the forks had to work fairly hard. No leaks evident so far. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again.