front forks

[john69]

I started cleaning and polishing my 81 in preparation of some good riding weather. The upper section of the front forks appears to be chrome but the lower section "outer" tube seems to be made of aluminum. Can these pieces be polished?

 

[5twins]

The fork lowers? Sure they can be polished. But they are usually clear coated from the factory so it saves a lot of work if you strip that off first. Saves having to polish through it. There are also lots of casting flaws, flash, and mold lines that can be smoothed out if you wish. The factory spent minimal time on this, less and less it seems the newer the bikes got. The legs on my '83 weren't finished off nearly as much as the ones on my '78. Here are the '83 lowers, one done the other not .....

Besides chipping off and allowing corrosion to form, the clear coat turns all yellow from age. Here's some of the casting flaws and mold lines, along with Yamaha's half-hearted attempts at smoothing them out .....

Using Roloc discs, I was able to finish the job .....

..... and the finished lower leg after some buffing .....