Aerosol Smoothrite
- Thread starter sloukes
- Start date
Transformed those fork legs, really nice finish
Good job there fella 
when do you want me to bring my bike round for a bit of the same treatment
Very nice
Apart from the wheel and brakes' did you take everything else apart?
Took the fork legs out but left the lower yoke in place.
That's a very smooth finish you've achieved there. My Dad however hated Smoothrite in a spray can. He used to say if you're going to use it, spray everything pretty much in one go. The next time you want it, the nozzle won't work correctly.
Turn can upside down and give a short blast to clear nozzle...usually works..
Fork legs look smart
Looks great
What did you do to prepare the surface for the paint?
Cheers
What did you do to prepare the surface for the paint?
Cheers
D6
Registered user
Turn can upside down and give a short blast to clear nozzle...usually works..
Fork legs look smart
or throw all your nozzles in thinners till next time,,,
SlowJohn
Registered user
Awesome job mate. How long did it take you? How did you prep it?
About 30 minutes to strip it down , then maybe a couple of hours to prep the legs and lower yoke (with quite a few fag breaks
).I used a brass brush to get off the furry bits , at which point even more paint flaked off , then rubbed it down with 120 wet and dry.
I masked off the bike with sheets of cardboard and painted the yoke in situ but figured it was easier to remove the fork legs for painting.
The hammerite went straight on top with no primer , as its advertised as 'Direct to Rust' , so we'll see how it holds up.
Steve
SlowJohn
Registered user
Thanks for the info, I'll give that a go, might even think about the front of the engine too.
ELIMINATOR
Registered user
I'd be inclined to use acid etch primer on aluminium.
SlowJohn
Registered user
Thanks for that, I'd never heard of it
A quick search revealed Acid 8 etch primer is twice as expensive as acid etch primer so in SlowJohn Naive Land must be twice as good 
Am I wrong?Yeah - ICI say "To ensure maximum adhesion on aluminium and non ferrous metal surfaces use Hammerite Special Metals Primer" , but i've painted loads of alloy bits over the years with hammerite and never had an issue.
They also tell you to use the special brush cleaner as well , but washing up liquid does just as well
ELIMINATOR
Registered user
I must admit that I have painted a rear claiper with smoothrite, and didn't use any acid etch primer, and it's still in place.
Where I used to work
anything aluminium was sprayed with acid etch to give it, I assume longevity of finish. I "rescued" a can of this before I was made redundant.
Where I used to work
anything aluminium was sprayed with acid etch to give it, I assume longevity of finish. I "rescued" a can of this before I was made redundant.Dinger
Registered user
Brilliant job that.
How well does the paint match the rest of the bike?
How well does the paint match the rest of the bike?
roddy
Registered user
I've just been repainting the lower forks on the beasty, so for comparison the photo below done using Hammerite Smooth Silver (no primer), 3 coats drying off each coat with a hair dryer for about 2mins. (LHS is the original
)The Hammerite is a surprisingly good match a wee bit glossy compared to the matt original but once dry it does dull down a bit more.
very impressive
Similar threads
