So I was wondering how difficult it would be to take off my forks...take those apart and send them into get either painted or powdered? I have a good sense of mechanical knowledge but have never taken a shock apart. I know by doing so, I would save nearly 1k trying to purchase a HD black fork with installation. Also, what is recommended for a coating... Paint or powder?

Really easy to do if you have a lift in your garage. Lots of videos on Youtube you can use for a reference. My buddy and I took his apart to have the lowers Powder Coated Black, while we were tearing things apart we installed lowered springs. Start to finish was two hours total...obviously we had to wait to get the powder coating completed, so it was a cumulative 2 hours.

Don't mess around with paint, just have them powder coated....a lot less expensive (see how I didn't use the word cheap) and more durable.

If you are not familiar with powder coating I would suggest something that is close to the ground, where you will most likely incur rocks flying up, chipping and pitting to have your powder coater....prime it, powder it and clear coat it, unless of course you are going with a flat black. Good Luck

**everything in orange other than tins has been powder coated**

Well maybe that will have to be a winter mod. I would like to place black gloss on the uppers and lowers of the fork. It's a good look on the Slim imo

Here's a thread I used when I had mine off for powdercoat.
Excellent videos...

..and powder is definitely the way to go - FAR cheaper than buying H-D parts.
I paid about $150 to get my forks done, along with a box full of other parts...
As far as the forks, all I had to buy was a couple of H-D fork rebuild kits (new seals and such) and two pints of fork oil.
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...k-sliders.html

Powder coat all the way, almost takes effort to scratch it. Where are you located?

Had mine done over the winter. I am not a fan of gloss or "denim" so mine is actually a satin black...happy medium...

The actual job of doing as stated above...is easy...its the wait that sucks!

I lucked out there too.
While picking the brain of the service guy at the local dealer as to who they used, he let it slip... they usually don't want to say...
Turns out the guy was a small outfit only about two miles from my house.
Seems he does a ton of work for a couple of dealers in the area.
He did some work for me, twice now, with never more than a two day turnaround... and no shipping hassles.