Just helped my son get my (now his) '83 out of storage and the exhaust is corroded. Black and Gold, Black exhaust.
My question is does anyone know what the finish is on the Black exhaust, obviously not paint, looks more like a plating, and on one side on the back it looks like there may be Chrome under the black finish?
Wondering what I can do to make her look good again as my son wants to get her looking good to ride (as I may have stated in my previous post). Anyone have any ideas on a new finish?
As always any suggestions appreciated.
Thanks.
Gary
That is black chrome. It can be redone but likely expensive. Is the old exhaust actually sound enough to be worth the trouble? Mine rotted out years ago.
The exhaust and mufflers are like new (I bought the bike new in '85) except for the finish. We had her running in 2011 and looked good, not sure why it corroded since then but now there are rust spots on the outside.
Are the rust spots obviously surface rust or do they appear to be deeper rust bubbles? If surface, phosphoric acid remeves rust. Not sure of its effects on black chrome. If the rust appears to be bubbling from underneath: I put a couple of JB Weld patches on such areas of my 83's muffler many years ago. The factory mufflers are still quite serviceable.
I think the secret to muffler longevity is: Every-time the engine is started, even if you only need/want to run it for just a minute, it must be run until the full length of the exhaust system is heated to fully hot, to the point that even the very tips of the mufflers are almost too hot to touch. This ensures that no combustion gas acid condensate remains in the system to rot it internally.
To prevent surface rust in the future: When you know the bike will be unattended for three weeks or more, Spray WD 40 on the mufflers surface pretty heavily and spread it evenly on the surface. When the time comes to next start the engine, be sure to clean the WD40 off the surface very well because it may damage the chrome surface when heated. Just give it a real good heavy wipe down with a clean dry soft cloth.
Since I"m in the throes of a cosmetic rebuild on my 83 I've got the same problem as gmac. I wonder if powder coating would hold up? I found out last week that I've got a powder coating guy about a mile and a half from me and I"m itching to try him out.
Art, sounds like a good fix if the pc will tolerate being reheated to exhaust system heat levels. Please be sure to give us a report of how it turns out. Your coating guy may have a pretty good idea of feasibility. Cheers to you.
Powder coat is available in high temp varieties, but they aren't good for exhausts which get really hot.
A better choice would be Cerakote. Available in chrome, black and some other colours. Black is the best for heat stability up to 1100C.
We used to sand blast chrome pipes and spray them with Bar-B-Que Black or some other high heat tolerant paint. If you check with 'performance shops' you can find many colors of exhaust paint. For sure it won't look exactly like original but if you do a good job it should make a clean appearance. The original surface needs to either be blasted or chemically etched so the new paint can get a grip.
I have seen white pipes, and red, and a stunning bright blue. These colors come in 'flat' rather than glossy. Black always looks good.
+1 for both Fret Not and POD. I have used both methods on car headers (extractors) :) and the ceramic coating looks very hi-tech, is very durable, and also very much reduces underhood temperatures. Not too expensive, think it was about $100 USD for a 4 cylinder set.
Painting requires the prep mentioned... I had them blasted with lots of other stuff so the cost was minimal.
Also looks pretty good, not quite as durable (but you can touch them up yourself) but provides no underhood temperature reduction.
Steve
A lot of old classic sports cars had ceramic coated exhaust manifolds but I've never seen anyone use this on motorcycles. I think it requires much higher heat than powder coat but it really looks great.
On my bike I was thinking of just having the mufflers powder coated. I'm pretty sure the header pipes wouldn't hold up but maybe the mufflers don't get that hot. We'll see.
Art, mufflers can get hot enough to melt the soles of boots. It becomes difficult to clean off after it cools.
Quote from: artbone on August 09, 2017, 11:29:12 PM
I'm pretty sure the header pipes wouldn't hold up but maybe the mufflers don't get that hot. We'll see.
I have no experience with powder coating or it's heat limitations. Having said that, I wonder if the double wall construction of the (stock) header pipes wouldn't help preserve the finish through heat reduction?
I'm going with Rikugun on this one as the pipes are double walled - I have had very good luck with header paint & I have never seen a Vision with blued Pipes. Now my 84 BMW is a different story.
Cheers Ken S.
If you can get a clean steel surface maybe a blackening compound like those used on firearms would do the job.
I have used Brownell's Dicropan with good results on the black Seca Turbo mufflers.