chrome exhaust rust prevention

[keifernet]

Thanks for all the input guys. I am familiar with never dull and mothers and just about every other product out there. I have heard of the simichrome but never tried it.

I am not so concerned with bluing of the pipes, I think they are going do do that near the exhaust ports no matter what. Was just trying to find out if anyone had any luck with keeping the lesser quality chrome from rusting so fast.

This buggy will be out in the open but the engine will be covered with a tarp. And I am sure it will be futile to keep it from rusting. I will tell the owner the best thing is to keep it clean and polished as much as possible. And next time to order a raw one and send it out to have a coating put on it

[55reasons]

http://www.jethot.com/

[tcrdn]

I used Jethot coating on some aircraft exhausts and it's great stuff. I don't remember what it cost but it's great looking stuff and stands up to 700 + degrees C so it should work great on a car exhaust. The stuff wouldn't scratch either.

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TC

[ACI]

Let me chime in with a manufacturer's point. Chrome is no fun! The plating is only a fraction of the work. For a really good finish you have to polish the header as it is built. Cut the tubing, polish it. Bend the tubing, polish it. Weld the tubes up, polish it. A few other steps then a final polish and off to the plater. Oh, did I mention that any time between these processes allows rust to start setting in? When it comes back from the plater it is hand polished and wrapped for delivery. Hopefully it hasn't gotten a ding or a yellow spot or all that labor goes in the trash! Once your strip it all the polishing needs to be done again! But man is it pretty hanging on the racks! Just don't start the motor!

And that $750 set of Harley pipes actually takes half the time to manufacture than the $200 Bobcat you have!

Polished Ceramic takes heat far better. From a reputable provider you can even get a warranty for adhesion and against discoloration!

[Ozone]

I have a set of headers that are Ceramic Coated with stainless steele end pipe/muffler. That blueaway or there is also one i heard of that is not oil based, i heard that any oil based cleaner/polish will stain ceramic, not sure on that.

LaterZ
Ozone
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[ACI]

[Big Dave]

My car has the chrome tri-mil bobtail. My car lives outside and never gets coverd. It is my daily driver, even in the Utah winter. The first year I did my best to keep the pipes clean and polished. they looked pretty good, but almost immediately started to rust inside the collector part that you can't get to. There's nothing that I have found to stop it except when I spray it with WD-40 to keep it from rusting to bad.
The other problem with chome is if you don't keep it spotless, the heat makes the discoloration permanant. Fingerprints that don't get wiped off will permanatly blue the chome, as will excessive heat from running hard in the sand at low speeds.
My exhaust is now 3 years old and no longer looks too good. This winter i am going to switch to a ceramic coat type.
Does anyone know if the store bought tri-mils with the ceramic coat are any good? Would I be better off to have one coated by a company like Jet-hot?

[subybaja]

I don't get why there are virtually no stainless setups around...? Not all VW folks are cheap.
If you look at 4-Wheeler, Eurotuner, *any* non-aircooled mag, you'll see stainless systems all over. They may not be as pretty as chrome, but my baja is a machine, like a Sawzall, not a bowling trophy (or $20K bike).
Anyone know?

[scott the viking]

I totally agree, I looked around for stainless before I went with ceramic. I could have built one (for about 300 hours labor) but since I had planned on switching to a different engine from the start, I didn't see the need. These days, 20 grand is a cheap bike.
By the way...I don't want to beat this to death, but....really quality chrome is very durable. I know this because most of my off roading 95% is spent next to the ocean. Cheap chrome will rust in literally minutes. I have seen guys run their car through the surf, not even so much as wipe it off until three days later and still no rust. That...is good chrome.
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[ACI]

Ok, let me hit on a couple of these points.

Stainless: The cost is high for a couple of reasons. It is a bear to work with. It acts very different than steel. You end up with twice as much waste and it wears out tooling 3 times faster. It also requires special tooling. If you are doing all stainless then you can deal with it but when it is only 15% of your manufacturing that is a lot of sxpensive tooling sitting around. The cost of the material is 2-3 times the cost of steel also. And it must be polished like steel is before plating. It also will turn yellow like chrome turns blue. If you try to polish out the yellow to dull the finish. Your finished cost is about double of what a ceramic system would be. 5 years ago we made 25 systems and it took almost 4 years to sell them out. No one would pay the premium. Stainless i critical in some cars because of corrosive liquids that form But ceramic inside the tubes as we do actually is more durable than stainless. There are even a lot of people coating stainless systems now!

You're right, good chrome shouldn't rust. Like paint though, it is all in the prep work and then how the chrome is applied. In Cali, even US as a whole, it is hard to find any plater that can keep enough chemicals in his tanks. The more they use the more often they have to flush their tanks and waste water is a huge issue. We reject 5% or so of our chrome immediately on return from the plater. And they are an excellent outfit. The do the plating for several large motorcycle exhaust companies. But in those nooks and crannies there is nothing you can do about it. By the way, an immediate giveway on the quality of a chrome job are those hidden shadows. Large rough non-glossy spots are a sign of how poorly it was prepared. And the size of the yellow shadow is indicative of the chemical quality in the chroming process. Don't confuse that though with some yellow streaks which are usually leftover rinse water stains. They usually come right off.

If you really want durable there are non-polished ceramic available as well. That's what you usually will find on race cars.