No, it's bare steel underneath, not chrome. I'd look into getting them refinished if it's bad.

 

No, it's bare aluminum underneath, not chrome. I'd look into getting them refinished if it's bad.

What year forks? If he's talking about the inner tubes, then it's steel beneath. I'm suspecting he means either the DLC coating (as on the K5/K6 1000) or TiNi coating (as on the later 1000's and the 750's). Can't be certain from his posting. :dunno

 

Sorry for the confusion, K4 forks its the black hard finish on the steel inner tubes, hence the question about oil tight...
I quess the question is, how thick is the black finish?

 

Mmmm, interesting. I thought the black was DLC. Maybe it was black coloured TiN on the k3/4.

It's real thin, maybe 5 micron maximum for either type of coating, so sealing won't be an issue.

EDIT: Although polishing off is probably not the way to do it. That would leave uneven finish and maybe the substrate is not hard chrome.

Professional chemical removal or re-coating is probably the way to go.

 

Thanks for the input, if you run your finger nail over the black to silver areas its not like rough or stepped, if the substrate was softer than the black finish then I think the seals would have been chewed up & leak ...the bikes done 65,000 miles...

 

Why not just look for a nice clean used set of complete forks?

 

Both of these are UK based and do (or used to do) fork refinishing:
Brooks
Reactive Suspension
Contact them to see what they currently offer.