Hi
I have been looking for crash bars for about 10 weeks now, it took me so long because I refused to pay the price for the new ones. So finally I got lucky and found the bike that was written off and managed to buy the crash bars for a £10. There was a really bad tarmac rash on one of them with deep groves and scratches. the other one was damaged (scratched) as well. I thought I just spray it with hammerite and put on the bike. Once its done I didn't like the results at all!!!:( you could see the damaged bit through the paint so I thought I had to do it properly.
So off to halfords and ebay - I bought paint remover Nitro (great stuff), I had some filler left at home, 1 can of black paint, had some primer left in the garage, sand paper and metal brush.
First stage was to put the paint remover on to the crash bars and leave it on for 40 min so it can work through the paint. once the paint started to flake off I used a metal scraper and heavy sand paper (80) + metal brush to remove it. I have to say it was veeery time consuming! had to repeat the whole procedure 3 times. job in progress below.
one almost done the other one is waiting to be attacked with the scraper.
once its done I cleaned them with dish washer and brilo pad (I think this is what's it called) to remove the last tiny bits of paint.
at this stage I also filled the scratches with the filler.below clean and ready to be primed.
below 2 coats of primer and wet sanded down with 800 sand paper.
below - 3 coats of matt black with wet sanding (1200 sand paper) in between the coats
ready to be put on a bike
Summary
I though I had a great deal and that I was going to get away with an easy hammerite job. it turned into 4 afternoons of work. even though I am quite please with the results as I have no painting knowledge and all the information I got from the answer to one of my previous posts (big thanks to forum member: stangbanger)
http://www.v-strom.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7874I hope I will never drop the bike now because when I do scratch them I will cry my eyes out after all that time I spent on them:)
so if you want to restore the crash bars and you like spending time in the garage I hope this post helps
total cost £20 ( I had some left overs from my previous jobs)
