Blacking out the pipes with ceramic powdercoating

Now that the season is winding down I've decided to pull the bike apart and start going to work on it. The plans are as follows:

-Front and rear fenders are going to be sand blasted and painted a gloss black to match my tank.

- 4to1 pipes are gettting a ceramic flat black powdercoat applied to them.

-Misc parts Kick Stand, Center Stand, crash guards are going flat black as well.

I'll make sure I post before and after pics

I have called yamaha and was told that the exhaust studs/bolt studs are discontinued. I cannot go forward with this unless I am able to track these down since mine are in pretty bad shape replacing them are a must. Any ideas as to where I can find some???

Also is soaking the studs in PB Blaster a good idea? I have a torch ready to go for the heat factor. I really would like to avoid breaking any of the studs!

Thanks in advance and stay tuned for pics. I should have it apart this sunday if all goes well

 

Go to Forums page.

Click on first line on page (XJ4ever)

Follow instructions, you'll be communicating with Chacal / Len.

He'll probably have what you need.

 

Many thanks! I sent out an email hopefully he has what I need...

 

Hopefully is an understatement. That man has everything

 

Very true!

Exhaust Threaded Studs, Exhaust Flanged Nut and Exhaust Ring Gaskets In stock and ordered!

All I have to do now is make sure I take the old studs out properly!

 

Be careful! They like to snap. And when you re-install, dont overtighten. I broke two doing that

 

Tip;
After you paint the header with the ceramic, cure it between coats and after the final coat with a propane torch. Don't be afraid; you won't burn it off. Then, when you install the headers, the cured paint will be much less likely to scratch off.

 

I'm second guessing myself on the powder-coating...

Would you guys wrap the pipes or powder-coat them? Any pros and cons to either? I know the powder-coat runs about $150 and I can buy 100ft of wrap for $50 so besides costs what else is there

thank in advance

 

First of all; my bad on the last post. You wrote "powdercoating" and I read "ceramic paint". Ooops!

But since you are having second doubts......
My .02.......
I have used ceramic ultra-high temp paint with good results, providing your prep work is adequate and you follow the directions to the letter.
Including the part about heat-treating between coats. This is the 2000 degree ceramic I'm referring to. You'll have to re-paint every couple of years in most cases. Cost is reasonable (under $10.00 a can) with very professional results.
If cost is no object, go Jet Hot.
http://www.jet-hot.com/
This is the ultimate in protection, far better looking than ugly header wrap and doing an excellent job of heat dispersion. They coat the inside of the tubes as well. The only downside I can see is the price.
Best of luck, let us know how it turns out!

 

Paint them. Header wrap CAN be cool looking, but most of the time it looks crappy. Just paint em, get it lookin sexy, not bandaged.

Also, I don't even get what wrapping the headers on a bike will do...keep the ambient temperature of the engine area down a couple degrees when you're sitting, but I highly doubt it has effects at 30 MPH...

 

CaptKirk, I was wondering if you powder-coated your own pipes I was about to be really impressed haha. Anyway, yea price is def an issue which is why I think I'll stick to first couple options but the jet-hot options seems pretty awesome.

PipeDreams, I was thinking the same especially since I would be doing the wrapping them myself and I don't think I would do that good of a job. The ceramic powder-coat is rated at 2000deg so it should work.

Here's some pics of the progress so far...

 

In addition to keeping your leg from frying or melting your tennies, the wrap serves a more evil and devious purpose; it increases scavenge effect by convection (which is why the Jet Hot pipes increase horsepower). Most of the wraps I've seen contain asbestos and frankly, look like crap. Perhaps in our eco-friendly world they've come up with a replacement for "White Death", but I'm not too sure about that. Anyway, for what it's worth, the ceramic ultra-hi temp paint works well for the little money spent. If you go this route, make sure you get the ULTRA-HI (Read; 2000 degrees F) paint, and not your garden variety "barbeque" of engine paint (usually rated at 500 deg F), and make sure it has ceramic in it. Brand is unimportant; I've used several brands with equal success. Bear in mind that exhaust gas temperature right out of the head can easily exceed 1500 degrees; this is why 500 deg. barbeque paint begins charring and flaking after about the second ride. Also, sand your pipes down to BARE METAL. If pitted with rust, brush on lightly diluted muriatic acid and rinse with plenty of cold water, blow-dry with a hair dryer or heat gun, and MOST IMPORTANTLY before applying your first (tack) coat, wipe down completely with MEK, acetone or similar. Wear latex gloves. Any oil from your fingers will cause the paint to peel (yes, even ceramic). Wear old clothes you don't give a s*it about as well as chemical-resistant gloves and eye protection when working with muriatic acid. Bad stuff, my friend. But it works oh so well! :wink:

 

Having worked with both MEK and acetone, I'd say to go with the acetone and leave the MEK on the shelf. Methy ethyl ketone is just nasty stuff to work with. It penetrates skin on contact, so the slightest splash onto unprotected skin will result in little dead patches that take a while to heal. Acetone will clean and dissolve basically anything that MEK will, and is pretty much harmless by comparison. The only relative downside of acetone is that is evaporates a lot faster than MEK.

 

Methyl Ethyl Ketone is also a known carcinogen....hence, the gloves. Hell of a degreaser, though!

 

I dropped the pipes, crash bars, f+r fenders off to get powder coat shop yesterday. I stuck to the original plan since I heard really good things about the ceramic powder coating. I was told the curing would take 5 days in house so I'm looking at getting all my parts back next weekend. I should have it put back together by middle of next week.

Also as a reference for anyone else looking to do this prices were as follows:

4 to 1 pipes $140

F+R Fenders $50

Crash bars $10

Total plus tax not bad for what your getting.

 

That will look great, man. Of course we're all do-it-yourselfers here so we gotta hash out the ins and outs of ceramic painting, but yours really will look about as good as it possibly can and will last a long time.

Get pics up ASAP.

 

I would've like to have done it myself but like you said I really hope that going this route will allow the pipes to last a lonnnngggg time now...

I'm excited about it and will post pics as soon as I have it put back together.

 

got my parts back from the shop...

f+r fender turnder out good as well as the crash bars however, the pipes don't share the same story.





Spoke with the shop and I'm taking it back to them to have them re-done :x

Anyway I've been really browsing for upgrades to do the bike and I've ordered new blinkers all around as well as new foot pegs. Cleaned the bike up and repainted misc spots on the bike.

This is my inspiration and after seeing it I might still partially wrap my pipes...