OK so you are on a shoe string budget but your shocks look like they are ready for the scrap yard? Sure you could drop a 100- 300$ on some new ones or do this if you are strapped for cash .
Started with this :
no way those are coming back I was thinking....but I had a thought and some time so I tried a little experiment.
Easy to take these apart if you have a vise and a ratchet strap....
after disassembly I saw that the dampening was still prolly just as good as it ever was to begin with . It's like gas tank that looks like hell on the outside are always spotless inside and the ones with the perfect paint are just waiting to pinhole leak everywhere on ya....go figure.
anyhow I went to town with my wire wheel and even thought the chrome was pitted badly on the springs , the shock bodies cleaned up spectacular. I rubbed 'em up with some 0000 steel wool after the wire wheel but spend maybe 3 mines total on each shock body.
Next comes the miracle elixir-
spray painting shock springs would NOT work at all typically , First time they flexed the paint would crack and flake. The trick I thought up was to use plasidip (can get at any NAPA and many othe rauto stores) which is an aerosol rubberized coating. After spraying several coats with the Plastidip I then sprayed a top coat with Krylon Fusion which is a very flexible paint that you can actually paint plastic dirtbike fenders with and it will not crack or flake as it is formulated to bond with plastics and it very flexible . It also comes in several colors and adds gloss (the plastidip only comes in flat colors) .
so for like 8 bux you can refurbish quite a few sets of shocks. Or say you just wanna paint your springs for a paint theme ,there you go.
Now I know this is in no way a suspension improvement but if the shocks still dampen well it sure hides the hell out of a horrid eye sore.
Hope this helps someone save a buck or two-
