Hi all,
This weekend I decided to re-finish the black exhaust tips on my OEM sports exhaust. They were in an absolute state, the lips barely had any paint left. The factory paint is VERY thin. In total it took around 15 hours to do. I've never done anything with paint before, and was looking forward to this!
This was the state of the tips cleaned up. Didn't realise the paint was actually gloss from factory. Luckily I got gloss black HT paint.
So, my armchair bodyshop youtube binging was all the training I needed. I set about the prep. I used 240 grit sandpaper to take them back to metal being mindful of not taking the welds too low. The main focus was getting all the pitting out from around the lip. To get them totally smooth I had to sand back to where I just saw a bronze coloured alloy (tin?) beneath the silvery alloy (stainless?). If I saw bronze, I knew I was removing too much material and backed off.
I used a wire wheel drill bit to get into the folded lip and key up the inside (which looks more like I sanded it). I wasn't too fussed about going too deep as I don't clean the inside and let the carbon build-up do the work of keeping the inside clean looking.
Once I was happy with the surface, they were panel wiped down and the painting started. I used "FOLIATEC FT2125 Exhaust Pipe 2 Part Gloss Spray Paint" in black. Though it didn't say self etching, I was happy based on the Foliatec website that I didn't need primer. Time will tell on that one.
I did around 8 coats, letting it tack up slightly for 10 minutes or so between each coat. I am very happy with the end result:
It is glossy and thick / enamel looking. I am hoping it lasts longer than the micron-thick factory paint!
Anyway, if you have the time, certainly worth doing!
If I was going to do it again, I would use a HT black and a HT clear coat if possible (is that a thing?) and really gone for it flatting back coats of colour and clear to get a glassy finish. I think that'd have been excessive but really satisfying.
As they're exhaust tips, I think this job was more than enough and better than factory.
This weekend I decided to re-finish the black exhaust tips on my OEM sports exhaust. They were in an absolute state, the lips barely had any paint left. The factory paint is VERY thin. In total it took around 15 hours to do. I've never done anything with paint before, and was looking forward to this!
This was the state of the tips cleaned up. Didn't realise the paint was actually gloss from factory. Luckily I got gloss black HT paint.
So, my armchair bodyshop youtube binging was all the training I needed. I set about the prep. I used 240 grit sandpaper to take them back to metal being mindful of not taking the welds too low. The main focus was getting all the pitting out from around the lip. To get them totally smooth I had to sand back to where I just saw a bronze coloured alloy (tin?) beneath the silvery alloy (stainless?). If I saw bronze, I knew I was removing too much material and backed off.
I used a wire wheel drill bit to get into the folded lip and key up the inside (which looks more like I sanded it). I wasn't too fussed about going too deep as I don't clean the inside and let the carbon build-up do the work of keeping the inside clean looking.
Once I was happy with the surface, they were panel wiped down and the painting started. I used "FOLIATEC FT2125 Exhaust Pipe 2 Part Gloss Spray Paint" in black. Though it didn't say self etching, I was happy based on the Foliatec website that I didn't need primer. Time will tell on that one.
I did around 8 coats, letting it tack up slightly for 10 minutes or so between each coat. I am very happy with the end result:
It is glossy and thick / enamel looking. I am hoping it lasts longer than the micron-thick factory paint!
Anyway, if you have the time, certainly worth doing!
If I was going to do it again, I would use a HT black and a HT clear coat if possible (is that a thing?) and really gone for it flatting back coats of colour and clear to get a glassy finish. I think that'd have been excessive but really satisfying.
As they're exhaust tips, I think this job was more than enough and better than factory.
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