Update to my post from last week: https://www.reddit.com/r/bikewrench/s/uqXgmbivCy.
As I mentioned in my last post, I used very warm water to loosen the seals that were stuck in my suspension fork lowers. While it worked to remove the seals, the water discolored the finish. Some helpful comments lead me to try restoring the finish with Maxima SC1. It mostly worked – see before and after pictures included in this post. Good enough for me.
Lessons learned: I thought using water would be safer than a heat gun because I could control the temperature (impossible to get above 211F once it's not boiling). But it turns out 211F water was hot enough to cause damage to the finish of these forks. The SC1 definitely reduced the color difference, and I'm not too precious about my bike so this is fine for me.
Would I sous vide my forks again? Only as a last resort (which this kind of was), but only after trying a heat gun first. Or reduce the cook time for a more al dente texture.
by ballardist