Renovating my 1150GSA Headers

Following on from this thread
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259930&page=2

I bought this 2005 1150GSA last summer with 23,000 miles on it and a BMW Full Service History



It was bog stock, never seen a TT or Wunderlich farkle and the owner had jsut ridden and cleaned it every now and again

Underneath it was in really good nick, just dirty....................with no usual forkbrace or front cover corrosion, etc





The only thing to really let the bike down were the downpipe headers.............they were stained, pitted and discoloured and someone had tried to partially remedy it with a scotchbrite pad, leaving thousands of tiny scratches on any bright bits

So overwinter, i have stripped the bike and did some jobs

One of which was to sort these horrible headers



The came off easily with no drama

Thanks Rainbow BMW

I had 2 choices

a) Polish them myself, which may have only been short term and needed regular upkeep

b) Have them refinished to a new standard (new headers are over £400)

So i opted for plan b) as I've restored quite a few bikes over the years

I initally took them to Prestige Plating @ Mexborough, a very well respected chrome/bright finishers in South Yorkshire who are maybe the best chrome platers in the UK

They said ...............not possible ....................they were chrome plated stainless and it requires a special and unusual process to do this, otherwise it falls off the stainless.................bugger

So I trawled around here and came up with ceramic coating by these people

http://www.camcoat.com/ in Warrington

I spoke to them and found out the charge was £105 incl. Vat

Keen to see their work, before letting them loose on the headers, I went over for a look-see.

They were very enthusiastic and showed me all the process including all colours and finishes

Cleaning is easy, just wash off when stone cold with warm water and car shampoo and polish with a gentle automotive paint polish

They coat both the inside and out of the pipes and it can stand temps up to 1000c, so hopefully the pipes won't 'blue' when refitted

I chose Cermakrome finish, which was as near a match to original

These are the results, so far........................full testing will see if all is well in normal usage.......... in the longterm



















Comments welcomed........................I'm very pleased with the results

Looks great - but it'll make that front cover look shabby when you bolt them on

Looking forward to seeing how it lasts.

Dick

uncle dick said:

Looks great - but it'll make that front cover look shabby when you bolt them on

Click to expand...

Front cover was only dirty.....................treated with SDoc100 and it's like new (Pic below with pipes before they were CamCoated)



Now fitting stainless fasteners

Didn't Mike O do something similar a while ago only to find that the coating reportedly fell off in short-order?

MikeP said:

Didn't Mike O do something similar a while ago only to find that the coating reportedly fell off in short-order?

Click to expand...

Depends on who does it I suppose and CamCoat can highly recommended and were stacked with race car stuff, their lead time was 6 weeks, so in this climate..............that spoke volumes to me

Having researched it a fair bit on AdvRider, where the guys over there, seem to do their bike's exhausts with ceramic coating fairy extensively, it would seem that it all holds up well and may just dull a little

Trick is to do both inside and out (inside with a hotter black formula) - result is no blueing and pipes run cooler and gases flow quicker, which may aid performance (some race teams do it as a matter of course)

Many guys over there seem to have 1000's of miles with it and have seen no degredation of cosmetic performance..................quick rub over with Autoglym/Mer on a cold clean pipe and you're good to go

Looks good. Lets see some pics on the bike when you get them fitted. Like the others i'm interested to see how it lasts. My downpipes are quite pitted and not as good as yours were originally. Does it matter how bad they are before the coating is applied.

dancerdave said:

Looks good. Lets see some pics on the bike when you get them fitted. Like the others i'm interested to see how it lasts. My downpipes are quite pitted and not as good as yours were originally. Does it matter how bad they are before the coating is applied.

Click to expand...

They can't restore to a flat surface, but do bead blast to get rid of as much as they can, before coating

are they really brass coloured, or is it just the photos?


i'm concerned it might make your 1150 look <s>more</s> like a traction engine

Can you pop out for a 5,000 mile thrash including every kind of off road surface and end it with 2 hour slog through central London in the rush hour and then post up the report.

I'll look out for it this evening

Thank you.

Used Camcoat for my Buell headers and they were fantastic

Am very tempted to buy a set of second-hand headers and have them done

Now fitted this afternoon

Very very nice!

Just bought a second-hand pair of headers so I think I'll be going the same way as you.

JohnnyBoxer said:

Depends on who does it I suppose and CamCoat can highly recommended and were stacked with race car stuff, their lead time was 6 weeks, so in this climate..............that spoke volumes to me

Having researched it a fair bit on AdvRider, where the guys over there, seem to do their bike's exhausts with ceramic coating fairy extensively, it would seem that it all holds up well and may just dull a little

Trick is to do both inside and out (inside with a hotter black formula) - result is no blueing and pipes run cooler and gases flow quicker, which may aid performance (some race teams do it as a matter of course)

Many guys over there seem to have 1000's of miles with it and have seen no degredation of cosmetic performance..................quick rub over with Autoglym/Mer on a cold clean pipe and you're good to go

Click to expand...

I used Camcoat (inside & out as they recommended for best results)...



...and it flaked off after a couple of thousand miles (held up well until a week in Scotland in Feb 06).



They re-coated with their hi-temp black stuff, but warned about aggressive cleaning (which I took to mean any cleaning other than a brush and water) - they look red and black now.



Camcoat told me the temperature the headers reached was just too high and that this had happened before (the matte-black finish is good for a much higher temp).

I hope you have better luck.

Mike O ! FECK.

Well, 2000 miles on and in a mix of rain and road debris and they're holding up ok

No deterioration in finish or colour, no 'blueing'

Washed the bike last night with a sponge and Turtle-wax shampoo, followed by a gentle pressure wash off

Rubbed a bit of Mer polish over them this morning, polished off and hey-presto.............good as day I put them on

Seems ok to me

I can live with this

They look great Johnny

The guys at Camcoat told me that the reason mine flaked off was the headers were just getting too hot. I don't have any cause to think that my bike runs hotter than anyone else's - the damage happened after a particularly cold week in the Highlands in February and I'd not been conscious of sitting stationary for extended periods with the engine running (which I know can get the headers glowing red). Maybe they made an error in applying the coating to mine...

Mike

Mike O said:

They look great Johnny

The guys at Camcoat told me that the reason mine flaked off was the headers were just getting too hot. I don't have any cause to think that my bike runs hotter than anyone else's - the damage happened after a particularly cold week in the Highlands in February and I'd not been conscious of sitting stationary for extended periods with the engine running (which I know can get the headers glowing red). Maybe they made an error in applying the coating to mine...

Mike

Click to expand...

Cheers Mike

Maybe they've changed the formula?

Who knows?

Do you run a Y Piece?

I'm running the collector and cat

I think I had the ZTechnik Y Piece & silencer on then. I've since fitted a cat & stubby.

Mike

JohnnyBoxer said:

Well, 2000 miles on and in a mix of rain and road debris and they're holding up ok

No deterioration in finish or colour, no 'blueing'

Washed the bike last night with a sponge and Turtle-wax shampoo, followed by a gentle pressure wash off

Rubbed a bit of Mer polish over them this morning, polished off and hey-presto.............good as day I put them on

Seems ok to me

I can live with this

Click to expand...

Ohhh they do look nice !! may well build into next winters tinkering.
hoefully you might update us again as things with the finish progress?

I just covered mine in red dirt whilst in Morocco. It baked on really hard and I've left it there ever since