exhausts

[dilley]

I thought I would try and polish my exhausts today as they are badly tarnished, my polishing kit on the grinder will not touch it!! tried a wire brush in the end of a drill and this takes ages to do a small patch and leaves a matt finish, I have noticed that some paople have painted there exhausts, is this for the same reason?? I suppose I could cover them in exhaust wrap!!

[Pb3]

Any paint on stainless exhausts that you probably have seen is a ceramic coating to help with heat rejection, primarily, not to make them look nice. The colour changes you see will always occur but you find even leaving a finger print on them causes it to discolour in strange ways. I too have tried but gave up with polish. I know some have had them polished by a metal polisher (tuxman to name but one) but it doesn't take all that long before they return to there natural state.

As for wrapping them that too can soon start to look a bit of a mess, it costs quite a bit and may not help you engine a great deal.

[TuxMan]

I used a guy in peterborough he charged about £80 i think but as pb3 said it did not take them long to go blue !!!

[dilley]

I can handle blue or bronze! I just can't stand looking at the tarnish!! which is really bad, I have dropped both exhausts off tonight to a polishing company just down the road, charging me £180 though!! They are going to blast them and then polish where they can, manifolds could be a bit tricky, but still, will be 100% better than thet are now!!

[CanAm Dave]

dilley said:

I thought I would try and polish my exhausts today as they are badly tarnished, my polishing kit on the grinder will not touch it!! tried a wire brush in the end of a drill and this takes ages to do a small patch and leaves a matt finish, I have noticed that some paople have painted there exhausts, is this for the same reason?? I suppose I could cover them in exhaust wrap!!

Hi Dilley

Mine were also badly tarnised when I got my car. But with a sisal mop and the right compound and a few spare hours they came up a treat. It's the polishing compound that makes all the difference. Blasting sounds a bit extreme! It was the silencers that were bad on mine. My headers have now had a ceramic coating.

Regards Dave

[Pb3]

Dave, so your headers were used and you got them coated. I have read a bit about it but I was under the impression that they could probably not coat the insides as well once used. Who did you use and what state were yours in, did they chemically clean them or something?

[CanAm Dave]

Pb3 said:

Dave, so your headers were used and you got them coated. I have read a bit about it but I was under the impression that they could probably not coat the insides as well once used. Who did you use and what state were yours in, did they chemically clean them or something?

Hi Phil

The headers were blasted inside and out and then chemically cleaned before being coated inside and out. They were coated black on the inside. The black is the best coating but most people go for the chrome finish on the outside, as did I. They were done by Camcoat which is just up the road from me in Warrington. Before I had mine coated I went to see how it was done. Nice bloke that runs the place and it's usually a two week turnaround.

Regards Dave

The outside coat seen below.

[DHGTR]

Ive also had mine coated by camcoat, i had a different finish on mine to Daves, mine is more of a grey type ali look to it, pretty much or even probably the same as Gmans finish on his. Again mine were done inside and out.

dave