Paging Taco experts ... question on the mid spring fork and paint

[race]

Finally getting the paint touched up where repairs were needed and a question came up on the forks. The bike is a '70 Taco 44 and has the mid spring fork.

Do you paint the portion of the upper fork leg that sits under the springs? My paint guy says the spring and lower tube are going to scrape it up just during reassembly and certainly during any riding. I had never really thought about it and now that I look around I can see most forks were painted but a few were left bare.

Did they come from the factory painted? And does the paint hold up or just get scratched off by the spring and lower tube in short order?

FYI - This will def be a rider and not just sitting in a room. See pics.

 

[plum pits]

Is yours powdered or paint .Paint works without wearing paint off powder you have to not powder that area of insertion .

 

[race]

Well, I didn't reach the painter in time and it's painted now. Originally it was powder coated by the seller but the welded on segments broke off so I had to have them re-welded on and then took the area down to bare metal to prime and paint. I def think it looks better painted rather than leaving that entire lower tube area bare under the spring.

I'll just see how it goes when riding it. If you look carefully on the pics labelled painted 3 and 4 you can see the point where the upper tube goes into the lower tube is bare metal. I don't know whether that is from wear or if that last inch was left bare on purpose.

Short of running into a wall (which I actually did as a kid but that's another story) an inch of travel is probably all you're going to see out of these forks.