I have had the Comet for several years now, and have never really been happy with the look of the front spring boxes. They are meant to be black as standard but sometime during its 74 year life somebody has had the upper sections chromed, and added gaiters (picture 1). So i decided to paint them back to the original black but didn't want them to stand out as too immaculate as the bike has never been restored fully, and there are too many shiny Vincents out there..
Started with stripping the boxes off, and removing springs. The problem with the gaiters is they can have the opposite effect to the reasons why they were fitted, as in holding moisture in. Thats exactly what had happened here. With moisture in the lower section the mild steel corroded, and when i stripped and cleaned them off some holes were apparent. These I soldered up and filed down, there's no oil in there, only a good smearing of grease, so unless they are overly packed it won't cause a problem anyway, but I soldered them up nonetheless. After removing all old paint etc I gave them a good rub down with some emery, didn't want a mirror finish like i said, i almost wanted the 'rough' look. A couple of coats with some zinc etch primer and then 5 coats of Halfords Gloss Black, then a couple of nights to harden in the airing cupboard before 2 coats of clear coat. I also rebushed the fork blades and the upper mounts, had some oilite bronze bushes in the garage and just had to machine a bit off the end to get the correct length. All in all a good job, well pleased with the results!
Started with stripping the boxes off, and removing springs. The problem with the gaiters is they can have the opposite effect to the reasons why they were fitted, as in holding moisture in. Thats exactly what had happened here. With moisture in the lower section the mild steel corroded, and when i stripped and cleaned them off some holes were apparent. These I soldered up and filed down, there's no oil in there, only a good smearing of grease, so unless they are overly packed it won't cause a problem anyway, but I soldered them up nonetheless. After removing all old paint etc I gave them a good rub down with some emery, didn't want a mirror finish like i said, i almost wanted the 'rough' look. A couple of coats with some zinc etch primer and then 5 coats of Halfords Gloss Black, then a couple of nights to harden in the airing cupboard before 2 coats of clear coat. I also rebushed the fork blades and the upper mounts, had some oilite bronze bushes in the garage and just had to machine a bit off the end to get the correct length. All in all a good job, well pleased with the results!
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