My recently purchased 2011 FXDC had some ugly lower front forks. I thought about chrome lowers, but other than the pitted peeling factory clear coat and the nasty overall look of the stock lower forks, everything else was fine. I bought Gorilla foam sanding pads (Medium + Course) and went to work. I spent about 3 hours total with the sanding, and was pleased with the results. I didn't even want to try to polish them (well, I did a little test area, and it is way more work than I want to put in).

I'm done with the rattle can gloss black and clear coating, and now I'm waiting for it to dry. I used the cheapest paints Wal-Mart had. I think it will look much better than it did. The floor jack is just sitting there, waiting to jack up the bike and remove my homemade wood stand.
Pics below:

 

Completed. Man, these look so much better now. I would have done an outside pic, but the weather is preventing that right now.

 

Not bad at all, especially for a rattle can job. Prep is everything when it comes to paint and body work.

 

Great looking job. Goes really well with black fender.

 

What does the rest of the bike look like ?

.

 

Those forks are probably beat all to hell by now. The thread is almost 3 years old.

 

I bet they were beat to hell on the 2nd ride.