yellowed headers and side pipes

[aa909]

Originally Posted by trularin

I went through three sets of ceramic - they are challenged for everday driving. Rocks and road junk beat them. Then there is the ability to clean in between the pipes.

So, we moved to steel pipes ( stainless if I could have had them made ) and painted them black. They get just as beat up, but I glass bead them and paint them blackl again.

You need to determine what you are goigng to do with your car. If you are driving regular, you may grow tired of polishing again and again to maintain appearance. If you are going to build a trailer queen, polish and chrome may be your preference.

Just my $.03 worth.

wow, this is very helpful. so it sounds like rocks and other road debris chipped the ceramic, I hadn't considered that.

at the end of the day I am going to use this as a weekend cruiser, run some mountain roads here in the San Francisco Bay Area and put ~2K miles a year on the car. I really love the polished look of the stainless steel, but I wonder how quickly the polished pipes would yellow and how often I'd have to polish and clean them to get them back to their original polished finish

thanks

[Cashburn]

Originally Posted by aa909

wow, this is very helpful. so it sounds like rocks and other road debris chipped the ceramic, I hadn't considered that.

at the end of the day I am going to use this as a weekend cruiser, run some mountain roads here in the San Francisco Bay Area and put ~2K miles a year on the car. I really love the polished look of the stainless steel, but I wonder how quickly the polished pipes would yellow and how often I'd have to polish and clean them to get them back to their original polished finish

thanks

Have not seen the chipping of ceramic here, but it could be the quality of the roads and/or environment. A standard set of pipes in the polished stainless will yellow in about 100 miles with an engine in the 400HP range.

[aa909]

Originally Posted by Cashburn

Have not seen the chipping of ceramic here, but it could be the quality of the roads and/or environment. A standard set of pipes in the polished stainless will yellow in about 100 miles with an engine in the 400HP range.

thanks, that's what I needed to know. Ceramic it is!

[cbreez]

Some folks would look at color on the side pipes as a symbol of horsepower...a red badge of courage of sorts...you might not want to worry about that color at all.