Refurbing My Black OEM Exhaust

[Guest]

I found this 1983 GS1100E-ES oem exhaust on CL on the 4th of July. Solid as a rock except for the finish. So here is what I bought.


I took about 3 hours today and hit it with 0000 steel wool and W-40, coming back to life.


This completes the basic cleanup. Next I'm going to polish it with 3M fine cut polishing compound. I'm thinking of using some gun bluing for some minor imperfections. What do you think?

[farmall]

Bluing does nothing to deter corrosion.

[Crankthat]

Think it looks good!

[stiksave]

The gun blue is for cosmetics where the finish gets thin after cleanup. The heat shields must be a different grade steel, they seem to lose black a little as I cleaned them up. The bluing idea is to touch up any imperfections, short of using a black Sharpie. I don't want to paint the system. The whole project is trying to bring it back to original. The construction of the system is great, the finish from new leaves a lot to be desired. The quality and coverage is poor in the out of sight areas, crossover and bikeside of the mufflers. The price was right for a correct oem for my bike, when I bought the bike it had a crushed Supertrap 4 into 1 that I had to scrap and replaced it with a Yosh pipe and junkyard 4 into 1 header. So, that being said, I didn't need the oem. I thought it would be nice to have an alternative to change the look of the bike if I wanted.

[hikermikem]

I think it looks really good - your hard work is paying off!

[terrylee]

Looks like what you're doing is working, keep doing it and just polish and wax them once in a while and I would think they would look good for quite a while. Might even try a good chrome polish, even though they aren't chrome doesn't appear to be painted(?). terrylee

[stiksave]

I started phase two today, polishing.

[boingk]

Wow, that's looking pretty good mate.

Also I can't see anything wrong with gun blueing as its a chemical process that is specifically designed to hold up under harsh conditions.

Try it on a small area and see how it goes.

CHeers - boingk

[stiksave]

Thanks. The finish in the pics looks thin because of the sunshine after polishing. After cleanup there are only a few flaws where the finish is scratched or worn off from it's storage.(muffler tips) Sporting good stores sell bluing touch up or refinish kits that I think will help to hide the blemishes when done. I'm thinking of installing the finished system when I pull my 4 into 1 for it's periodic repaint. I have all of the parts except the half moon bushings that are used on tube 2 and 3 at the flange.. If anyone has a set they'd like to donate let me know, if not I'll hunt them up through the dealer.





I'd like to see what the old girl looks like with the stock exhaust on it. I couldn't hang them on her in the condition they were in when I bought them.

[stiksave]

Well, they're done for now. I have the half moon bushings coming from the dealer, so we'll see what they look like on the bike.




Next, a coat of Victory Red on my Rifle faring for the hell of it.

[dpep]

Those pipes look great. Thank you for posting this thread. The header pipes on my 1100E look very much like the 'before' shots of yours. The mufflers however look as good as new. I was thinking my only viable option was black ceramic and trying to decide if I should only do the headers (cut off and weld back on) or just have the whole system dipped to all look the same.

This gives me a whole 'nother thing to try first. If mine come out anywhere near where yours did, I will be a happy camper.
...

[stiksave]

Your welcome. The last thing I wanted to do was paint or recoat these. The system was solid as new, so I thought it was worthy of the effort. If the restore went well I thought it might be helpful to others. I guess a step by step guide would be good. 1st, 0000 steel wool with WD-40 as a lubricant to take off the heavy gunk and pitting. Second, I bought a 3" polishing wheel kit from Harbour Frieght $4.49, that came with 2 wheels and to bars of polishing compound. One red for heavier polishing and a white one recomended for jewelry and fine polishing which is the one I used. Just run the wheel over it to pick up the compound. I also used 3M fine cut polishing liquid with it. Then just some old terry cloth rags to wipe off the mess and see what you've done. That's it, step one is the real work. Good luck.

[alke46]

IMHO, nothing compares to the look of the stock pipes. Yours are looking great. Some day I am going to try to find a stock set for my bike just to get rid of the crappy mac 4 - 2 that is on it now.

[gs scott]

Caution!!

First, congrats on the clean up. I've never seen or heard of an effective clean up process for the black chrome pipes, but it sure looks like your method worked well. They are a chrome based process, similar to silver chrome, but with different chemicals to produce the black color, and they are not as strong or resistant as the silver, so the cleaning process must be gentle or it is very easy to remove the black.

Second - and this is the caution - I clicked on the hyperlink in your signature line and Norton Anti-Virus blocked an intrusion from some uk address.

[stiksave]

Using care in the process is self explanitory. The stock pipes being rare to me, made going easy with every step essential. The actual pipes and mufflers finish is quite tough. The heat shields seem to be a different grade steel and finish where more care has to be used. I'm the furthest from an expert, just an old school hands on guy "DIY". So a disclaimer as to the condition of your pipes and your process will influence your finished job.http://smg.photobucket.com/user/stik...71765716148538
Once I have the oem exhast on the bike, my next project is going to be a homemade soda blaster to strip the 4 into 1 header for refinish.

As far as Nortons caution, I run Microsoft Security Esentials on my pc's and Malwarebytes regularly without any intrusions. My Photo Bucket account is about 8 years old problem free.