Badly Rusted Exhaust

[Guest]

I recently acquired a bike that was owned by a guy who lived on the coast down here in Texas... He obviously didn't know what he was doing, the gs1000 was in very rough shape, and his solution to rust was to slap more and more coats of spray paint over it...

Now I've removed what seems to be a dozen or so coats of cheap black spray paint from the exhaust, and underneath the pipes are very rusty and pitted. No holes, thank goodness, but they're in bad shape.

After looking around and searching the forums for a reasonable solution, I'm at a loss for how to start here...

I need a hi-heat solution to filling in those pits first of all, and then I need a way to re-plate the exhaust. I see that the cost for re-chroming pipes is quite high... I was opting for a copper coat. Would a copper plating last? Could it even handle the heat?

Is there a better way to replate the pipes? I'd like to do this myself, if at all possible.

If plating is not viable, how should I go about filling those pits so I can just paint the pipes? And what spray paint / hi heat paint is recommended? I see some folks like VHT from auto parts, while others say rustoleum or some Canadian brand... I know that brand warfare is a messy business, I'm hoping someone can clear that up for me.

I'll continue to search the forums, but I'm having difficulty in narrowing my search results down to what I want =[

[Steve]

Find a powder coater in the area that does ceramic coating, or send them up here, to Aesthetic Finishers in oHIo.

You will probably not find anyone that will re-chrome them, because they don't want all the crud from the inside of the pipes contaminating their chemicals. Before ceramic coating, parts are cleaned, inside and out. Ceramic coating is sprayed on the outside and as far as they can reach on the inside, then the parts are baked. It is basically a lifetime treatment unless you do something to scrape it off, like running over a curb.

Not quite as shiny as chrome, but pretty darn close.



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[Call Me Ahab]

Wow, maybe not chrome but much better than what I'm dealing with now! Thanks again Steve =]

- Unfortunately, it looks like that's the sort of thing I can't do myself... which kinda sucks... My oven burned out anyways, I'll look into these guys.

[Tamara]

I might get that done to my pipes.

[cowboyup3371]

I'll second Aesthetic Finishers - I had them ceramic coat my pipes after I'd attempted to repaint them last year. I will say they turned out beautifully for a great cost and will post up a picture of them once I can get them back on the bike.

[EyeDreamt]

The other benefit of ceramic coating is it's a thermal barrier. I know a few guys with ceramic coated exhausts on drag bikes, and after a run you can touch the pipes and while warm, you won't burn yourself.