Any ideas on better looking exhaust bolts?

[Guest]

I was checking to make sure the exhaust bolts were good n tight when i realized how ugly they are. They are regular zinc coated bolts, but they are now discolored and really look out of place. I have a 82 gs550m with V&H 4-1 exhaust that is black. I would love to put some black chrome (or regular chrome) acorn nuts on there instead of the bolts that are on there now. Has anyone tried using acorn nuts instead of bolts? I'm more specifically interested in the high crown acorn nuts, they come to a point rather than a rounded top. I considered using stainless steel, but someone told me they could be a problem with the high temp.

[Flyboy]

I don't see why acorn nuts would be a problem, or a nice shiny new set of allen bolts in place of the regular bolts.
Whatever you go with, just use anti sieze and you will be fine.
Pics or it didn't happen.

[7981GS]

Best close-up that I have of Goldy:




Daniel

[B-rent]

This is a picture of what it looks like now. I think the rounded allen head bolts would look good too. Is there any type of metal or grade of metal I should stay away from? Would chrome bolts work ok for this?

[B-rent]

[Flyboy]

As long as you are not shy with the anti sieze, anything should be fine, i would stay away from stainless though.

[hampshirehog]

Stainless is fine on exhaust bolts as long as you are liberal with the copperslip.

[Flyboy]

There you have it, I humbly retract my last statement.

[7981GS]

I use grade 12.9 bolts or studs to be safe.

Daniel

[Rover]

Paint your bolt heads black with VHT.

[Big T]

Just take a bolt down to Ace Hardware and you can get an equal size Allen head - they come in black coating

[chuck hahn]

2 inch stainless set screws and stuc the engine...stainless washers and nuts as well. Yeah I know...I need new exhaust collars too.

[B-rent]

I went back to the hardware store and took the black chrome acorn nuts out to the bike to see how they would look. I have decided that I can't live without them on my bike. I have decided to order 8 socket head set screws that are 30mm long and use the nuts to secure them in place. It seems with the set screws I can get them in and back out without messing up the threads and still put the acorn nut on. I will just paint the existing washers black. The only problem is that the store only had 6 in stock, and nobody was around to talk to. I wanted to look online first, but have had no luck finding the acorn nuts in black chrome, soo looks like I will be going back to the store to buy all they have.

[B-rent]

I found 8 acorn nuts in chrome and decided to do that instead of waiting for the black chrome to show up. I am pretty happy with how it looks, a ton better than what it used to look like.

[Flyboy]

Nice.....