My take on partial-black exhaust, and thoughts on the process - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

alexg57 · 08-30-2008, 12:48 PM

What's the dilly?
I took Danthedawgfan's idea of a partially black-out exhaust and ran with it, but instead of going with the BBQ matte black paint, I found a series of paints at Schucks designed for high temperature applications - like engine blocks - that are supposed to withstand up to 500 degrees. I figured that would be enough; I guessed the exhaust pipes to only reach 300 or 400 degrees on the surface. And the best part is that it came in gloss black to better match my M50 Black. It's from Dupli-Color and called "Engine Enamel." I used DE1612 ("Gray engine primer"), DE1613 ("Gloss black") and DE1636 ("Clear").

The painting process
I started by taking apart every piece that I could so that it would be easier to paint them. I then took some 80 grit sandpaper and scuffed the hell out of the parts to be painted. I put in enough elbow grease so that the chrome looked more like brushed aluminum than scratched up chrome. Honestly, I have no idea if this was enough preperation work or not. Regardless, I finished prepping by giving everything a quick rinse with dish soap and hot water.

I then went at it with the primer, about 10 minutes apart for each coat. Following that, I sprayed on the black paint. Again, three coats about 10 minutes apart. Finally, I ended by putting the clear coat over everything under the same schedule as the other two. So all in all, there are nine coats of compound on the parts. Everything went pretty well, except that I had never really spray painted anything before and I ended up screwing up one the parts - I had to resand and start over on that one. Here's a hint: make sure the spray can is a good distance from the surface to be painted, and put several light coats on instead of trying to get that really wet paint look.

Anyway, I let the paint dry overnight and then reinstalled everything this morning. I was careful to not ding the parts on anything, but inevitibly I did end up with a couple of chips. I solved the "flange scraping" problem by either (painters) taping it to the end of the pipe, or by putting tape around a section of the pipe and taping the flange around that tape. That last part was a big mistake, though. After everything had been installed and tightened up, I removed that tape and ended up taking a big chunk of the paint with it! To fix that, I just sprayed some of the black onto a piece of cardboard and used a paint brush to apply it. I doubt it'll be as strong as the rest of the paint since there is no primer underneath it, but it should work at least for awhile.

Final thoughts
I think it looks fantastic - the color and gloss match up perfectly to the other black parts on the bike - but I doubt the paint will last forever. If I can pull some of it off with painters tape, it'll probably not withstand rock chips and general wear and tear even after it fully cures. I'll probably end up having it professionally painted at some point. I had a previous bike painted from top to bottom for like 700 bucks. Just a few pipes should only run me $50 or so.

As for a more durable DIY way... I don't know, what do you guys think? Should I have sanded it more during the prep work? Should I have let the paint cure for a few days before handling the parts? Maybe there is a compound that I could have used to give it about the same durability as the stock gloss black paint? Let me know what you think.

Dig!

~ alexg