After months of hording and planning I finally finished my baby blue Transition Dirtbag, and like an absolute idiot I managed to scratch the Stanchions on my shiny new (but 06) Marzocchi 66’s! After only 2 rides!! It wasn’t even a cycling accident!!! I just lent it against a wall and ….. well the rest you know. I was sad to say the least!
The scratches on my stanchions were pretty small really, however they were sharp enough , if left to their own devices, chew through the seals which would result in oil and air pouring out everywhere leaving my fork in an unusable state. I searched around and found a few possible fixes.
1. JB Weld: Its a putty/metal which can be used on really deep and/or big scratches. When dry it looks like and is hard as metal*
2. Nail Polish: It’s something women (and some guys) put on their nails so they feel pretty. You can use clear lacquer on chrome finishes.
As the scratches on my forks weren’t deep I went for the nail polish option, however I opted to use car touch up paint rather than nail polish, as it is harder wearing and, more importantly, I had some lying around.
If your trying this fix out too, your also going to need some waterproof abrasive paper. I used 600, 1200 and 2000 grit to make my repairs nice and smooth. You will also need some rubbing alcohol, to clean the surface (I used some nail polish remover) and some spare time.
The process of filling in the scratches is pretty straight forward and easy, it just takes a bit of time for the paint to dry in between sandings. In my case I smoothed down the sharp seal eating burrs with 600 grit paper until nice and smooth. Then I dabbed a generous amount of paint (maybe nail polish in your case) on to the wounds and left it to dry.
What you do in the hour or so you wait for your paint to dry is up to you.
Once the paint is nice and dry smooth it down using the abrasive paper and check to see how well the gashes are filled in. In my case most of the small marks were fine with the first coat, but the main offender needed 4 more dabs and sands to get smooth.
Once your happy with the repair give it a bit of a polish and you should be ready to ride again.* If your scratches are pretty deep you may have to go down the JB Weld route. The process is the same just make sure you only smear enough JB to fill the scratch. If you use to much you will be smoothing it down all week.
We at CMTB have been up to some building over the past few rides. Last week we managed to build a nice jump at the top of the trail, and yesterday work started on a landing ramp and berm. It tool a lot of sweat and time (and its still not finished) but even with the top of the trail in its half completed state we have noticed an big speed increase through the first section. We’re going to carry on the building work and keep you posted on how we did things and what everything looks like.
