Black exhausts

[Sergeant Pluck]

Mine had it's annaul bath yesterday and i noticed the one and a half years of average use hasn't treated my downpipes well at all. They are really badly pitted and look crap compared to how well the rest of the bike scrubbed up (apart from the fork-lowers, which despite a permanent 3mm layer of chainwax have still corroded ). I'm thinking of painting them that nice matt black you used to see on bikes years ago. Whats the best way to go about this? Get them sand-blasted and then, what? spray them with a special heatproof paint myself? hammerite maybe? or is this something I can hand over to a specialist to do? (this is my preffered option - I am useless with spraypaint).

Have any of you done this before or do you know where I can get it done? Your ideas gratefully appreciated as always....

pr0ne


(PS it's an interesting testiment to the decay in build quality from B*W - my 1978 R100/7 which hasn't been looked after especially well is still on it's original set of pipes and silencers - and the downpipes are in better nick than those on my 20 month old GS).

 

[toucan]

weatherproofing

try http://ratbike.org/rat-tech.html for all sorts of great tips to make your bike look great and to keep it weatherproof.

an example: When your paint is drying, sprinkle some birdseed or sugar on the paint for a real nice paintjob; also park your bike and through some bread round it, the resulting bird crap will revolt other road users!

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

fork lowers are aluminium.

Anodise them black ?

spray paint eggshell black ?

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

thanks motomartin, i'm going to worry about the fork lowers when they're really bad - its the downpipes and y-piece i'm after fixing up this time....

pr0ne

 

[Fanum]

If it's only 20 months old surely you have 4 months to get them done under warrenty???

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

you reckon they'll replace the downpipes under warranty?

I know they'll replace the forklowers but to be honest i can't be arsed to get them replaced with another set that'll be rusty again within a year. I was going to wait til they got really bad then get them blasted/painted.

pr0ne

 

[John Armstrong]

But if you get them treated while they're in a good condition....... Always assuming that the corrosion isn't internal, and is only caused by external influences. Intergranular doesn't care about the surface finish, all you'll be doing is delaying the invevitable.

 

[BiG DoM]

Simply take a Brillo pad to them and some polish and elbow grease - thwy will surprise you. If you are going to coat them the ceramic is THE way.