Excellent and thanks Derek. That looks the way to go. The length of your look fine to me. The attachment photos are very useful.

Historical footnote: The movie "Bad Boys" used 2 Cobras in the filming. One was a Trailer Queen used in all the close up shots. The 2nd was a VSE frame and suspension (Herb Adams) Cobra that was used for all the high speed and the "spin out" at the end of the movie. The VSE Cobra had non-functional (dummy) side pipes. So you're in good company.

I was reffering to the wheel base, but I see you have said yours is 100mm longer so it will be a 94 inch wheel base as opposed to a 90 inch (original) wheel base.
Hence the pipes being 4 inches short.

Hi Guys,

Can anyone direct me to the legality of side pipes in Victoria?

Tom.

Tom, my understanding is that the driver's side pipe is legal but not passenger side, eg, where fumes exit to the footpath. Also wouldn't be easy to pass engineering with working side pipes that meet Euro 4 emissions and the 89dB noise limit.

Another question:

I want to coat my steel pipes and have a matt or satin black finish. Considering that these are non active pipes, what coating/s should I use? Current considerations include powder coating, painting, POR 15, etc. I was thinking that powder coating may chip more easily than paint?

Merv I guess you can touch up acrylic paint a lot more easily than powdercoat. However if they're dipped they won't rust from the inside out.

Powder coating is a good choice BUT you have to find a coater that knows what he is doing. The metal must be correctly prepared and the coating must be the right one. There are two types of coating...thermoplastic and thermoset. I can't remember but one is more flexible than the other...you want the flexible one. Most of the top hotrod and muscle car builders prefer powder coating for their chassis etc. One thing is to ask the coater about the process for coating aluminium. It must be cooked at high temp before coating to burn out the oxides and impurities to prevent oxidization later. You can see this lack of pre-treatment on flyscreen doors and security grills that have turned flakey and have a furry white mess on them. This is a good sign that the coater didn't know the process or was too tight to do it right. I had a floor jack coated and a week after I took it to be coated (nicely bead blasted and shiny clean) I went back to take more bits to be done. The jack was just where I left it and rusty. When I collected the finished product it looked 'Fat' The coating was too thick. It chipped on the sharper edges but all scrapes and dings on the flatter surfaces hold up pretty well. I couldn't find another coater that knew the correct process or had the right type of thermoset/plastic coating so I painted my chassis with two pack eurathane paint. It seems ok but will scratch with some force.( ie- fitting tight headers. Chips aren't too much of a worry though. The stones off the front wheel against the front of the side pipe would be a real test of toughness though.

Merv, GMH Black with Satin Clear 2 pack on the pipes. See attached photos.

Thanks for the suggestions. They are very helpful. I could treat the insides with Xtrol and then prime and paint them and the outside, in paint (I like the Satin Two pack Craig) as that maybe more flexible on the front edge than powder coating.

However, there is a large and well equipped coatings place near me (they do all types) and I could ask about the 'softer' type of powder coating, as Rob suggests.

Is the POR tougher still?

Merv, the POR sales blurb says it can withstant being hammered, so it should be fairly chip resistant. I've used POR on steering components and it looks great in gloss black. Not sure whether they offer a satin finish though.

Thanks Paul. I will check that out too. I get the pipes next week and I would like to get it underway asap.

Personally I would leave Por15 where it's best for, people wanting to hand paint suspension and chassis components that are not suitable for powder.

It's a tough call whether to go with powder or paint, both have their pros & cons.

Merv, also keep in mind you can get 2 layer powder coating as well. Base colour and clear coat over the top. We now use 2 layer metallic powder coating on our steel chassis and steel suspension pieces, the visual depth into the coating is amazing. We have only used a gloss clear coat though, not satin.

Thanks Craig and also Rob for the detail. I am thinking that I need something that can be touched up at the front of the pipes occasionally. Altho powder coating may be tough enough.

What did you use Mick?

If you want a flat black, and even though your pipes are not live, I would use the $15 a can heat proof paint.
There is enough in 1 can to do both pipes about 3 times to touch up/respry stone chips (rare) or sand blasting from front tyre (will depend on how many kls you do).

Boxhead, yep, VHT Heat Proof paint would be the choice of a lot of Cobra owners with live pipes. It's also what I use now on our live pipes. Just sand back and respray when required.

But with fake pipes you can use some very nice cosmetic finished, 2 pack black/satin clear looks amazing. With the finish of Merv's Cobra, that is the way I would go.

VHT caliper paint requires heat to cure it properly. I imagine the heat proof paint will be the same.

POR 15 chassis black is a satin paint. Standard POR-15 will be no good due to UV light

Merv

I sprayed a primer and three coats of automotive acrylic matt black

There's already HEAPS of chips on the front where they face the tyres, they also catch gravel chips real well!

I reccon being able to touch up is a good idea, something powder coating may pose a problem with.

What about a nice set of mudflaps.....if we do a bulk order maybe we can get a nice Cobra emblem stamped on em%/

Mudflaps!!?? The side pipes are the mudflaps. I was looking at the thermoplastic powdercoatings (see Rob's post above) and they look the toughest for stone protection.

http://www.pcimag.com/IPP/2006/08/Fi...ekTable1LG.jpg

If this does not check out on Monday, I think I will going the way that Craig suggests.