DOWNPIPES - Paint, polish, ceramic coating, or leave them alone?

Off-topic
1

Sorry guys it’s another booorrrringggg topic about my Fireblade project and cleaning parts etc… Feel free to have a go at me for being a bit of a loser :hehe:

Got these downpipes you see… They’re a bit on the rusted side after 18 years worth of use on Britain’s roads.

I’m not sure what to do about them BOO HOO MUMMMYYYYYY :crying: Need them to hold up against the road crud, bad weather, salt etc that I’ll be encountering daily on my London commute…

So I could:

  • Do the vinegar/tin foil trick to clean them back up, but would they then still be prone to abuse and corrosion?
  • Scrub them down and then paint them with high temp paint
  • Send them off to CMF Slough to be coated in ceramic

What should I do?

Any advice / suggestions / general abuse gratefully received as always :slight_smile:

Thanks

2

VHT - a cheap and cheerful solution if it’s just going to be a commuter.
The ceramic coating sounds interesting though.

3

Do the effort and polish them then keep on top of it

4

Love too know how much the ceramic coating costs.

But the vht paint might hold you over and leave you a few pennies to spend of higher priority items like suspension fettling.

5

It’s not an original mild steel system it’s an aftermarket stainless system so just clean it up, it’ll take minimal maintenance to then keep it looking OK afterwards.

Ceramic will keep it looking pretty & you can have it in funky colours, but probably cost £100-200, VHT is absolutely pointless on a stainless system & would take a lot more maintenance than bare stainless to keep looking good as the paint will invariably need touching up regularly.

6

If it is mild steel, clean and paint.

Stainless, then Opti Glenz from HG and a good polish.

7

Are they stainless then?

I didnt think they were but could be wrong I don’t really know much about downpipes.

The ideal colour is metal silver so that suggests I should polish it up.

The ideal finish though should be the most durable - probably ceramic or VHT paint.

Paint will cost me next to nothing as I’ll do it myself but ceramic could indeed prove costly as mentioned above…

Thanks LB crew!

8

Definitely a stainless aftermarket system but it has been neglected for years hence the brown colour.

Polish it up & it will return to shiny silver, then so long as you give it a regular once over it’ll stay shiny with minimal effort. I guarantee that VHT paint will take a lot more effort to maintain & will never look anywhere near as good.

9

Oh sweet! Stainless downpipes! Cheers Pat.

Theres quite a bit of rust on the circular shims that hold the pipes in the engine block but I should be able to cut that back and clean them up nicely.

Result! :slight_smile:

10

Certainly looks like elderly stainless steel. Out of interest, is it magnetic? Stainless is generally not magnetic but it depends on the type.

If it’s not magnetic, you can be pretty sure it’s stainless steel. If it is magnetic then it doesn’t really prove anything either way.

11

Why is everyone so funny today. Great stuff Mark

12

sandblast , polish , keep wiped with WD40 or AFC50(that will keep the road shite off em and prevent a return to brilliant brown) :slight_smile:

13

Ooh sandblast, I might try that!

Doesn’t the ACF50 just burn off as soon as you warm the pipes up though?

14

ye sandblast/shotblast will brighten them up in no time and will get in all the lil nooks and crannies better than doing it by hand…

as for ACF … I think almost anything would burn off them eventually…just a good habit to cover all metal parts in ACF/WD or somit of the like in winter…personally I use WD…after cleaning, spray it into a cloth and wipe over. job done…has to be done more often than ACF…but aint bothered about that as i clean my bike regularly anyway.