Help needed installing a crown race to forks

[djgivvinup]

i've just got my streetbeat back from superbike Dan after a superb paint job    i've managed to install the bb cups & the headset cups without putting a single mark on the frame, but i've now come to fitting the crown race to the forks and i can't see any way to do it without risking marking the paint...Is there a way to install this without forking out(pardon the pun) for the expensive crown race tool?

Any help much appreciated 

[MartyC]

Wet and dry to take the edge off of it at the crown race on the forks to stop it chipping the powder coat and a short piece of scaffold tube to whack it onto the forks 

[gossa]

Depends on how tight/loose the fit is.  I took a BT2 crown race off of an elf fork today and it was not a tight fit.

If it's a snug fit you just need somthing to tap it down with, an oversized seatpost works well. 

[djgivvinup]

Its a very tight fit....i think trying the wet n dry thing might be a good idea to start with 

Any other suggestions??

[dibly]

an over sized seat post idea works well but iv cut the end of an old ns peg and wacked it down the steerer fiited the race with out a mark

Dibly

[Rombloke]

halfords headset crown races are a loose fit on os bike...and only £3.99....try one

Dave

[djgivvinup]

Thanks for all the help guys...im gonna try the wet n dry on it today, see if i can make it fit a bit easier.  Then some sort of pole to hit it down with, if that doesn't work then i'll be making a visit to halfords to get another crown race 

Thanks again..

[SaMAlex]

I just fitted a race to a set of old 1" forks and it was a right pain in the arse. I had to file down the top of the forks till the race went on, but I still had to smack it down with an ally tube and a big hammer. I had to take loads off the fork off before it fitted, but at least its a nice tight fit now. 1" headsets suck!

(oh, and it was a set of forks fresh back from SB Dan. I had to keep taking the race off again to file more fork off. One time I missed the race with the hammer and took a chunck of powder coat off!  . Dont tell Dan!  )

[oberonspacefruit]

a set of  new school forks fit nicely over the steerer tube of os forks.

[djgivvinup]

Finally managed to get the thing fitted   
I filed the forks down slightly where the crown race sits and wet n dried the race itself, it was still a tight fit, i didn't have any bloody tube to hit it down with & after an hour of trying to tap it down with a hammer & flat screwdriver, i found a spanner that fit around the race, sat it on top of the race & whacked it down a fair few times....five minutes later it was in place..woohooo!
Not a reccomended way of doing it but it did work 

Thanks again to everyone who replied to this post its much appreciated