Painted the exhaust!

[BladeVortex]

So the exhaust was a rusty mess, and was visibly getting rustier every month despite hosing it down with corrosion inhibitor.
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So I took it off. First step I did was a SHORT good scrubbing with muriatic acid from the pool supply store to wear away some oxides. It absolutely massacred that rust, and actually stopped reacting on its own before eating any good metal. It didn't take all the rust away, so the next step was sanding. I used 80 grit in a non rotating power sander. Where there was still chrome, it just scuffed it up good, didn't even reach the bare metal. Where there was still rust, it just removed the rust until the black oxide metals under the chrome were exposed and scuffed up good. I then absolutely hosed the whole thing down with brake cleaner to remove all the dust and not leave any residue behind. I wiped with brake cleaner soaked shop rags until no dust was being left on the rags. Next I did three layers of primer (two thin and then a medium layer).
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Then the same with the black paint.
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Then the same with the clear coat.
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I used VHT flameproof primer, paint, and clear coat. I left it to dry for about 16 hours. A quick test on a not very visible part of the exhaust confirmed a sneaking suspicion I had, until this paint was heated up and cured, it will be on there about as good as wet newspaper. I handled it with soft rags back on to my bike and thankfully they didn't abrase any of this non-cured paint off, however there was some tiny little <1mm points of contact when re-mounting the exhaust that instantly smudged through all 9 layers of paint. Thankfully they were on not so visible parts of the exhaust.
Last step was curing. I did exactly as the paint said, with the addition of a fan to cool the engine. 10 minutes idle, 20 minutes cool. 20 minutes idle, 20 minutes cool. 30 minute ride, 30 minutes cool. I came back after all this and it was cured all the way to the end of the exhaust. The heat shield that would be near your heel did not cure fully, so I just hit it with a blowtorch for a minute and let it cool. Worked like a charm. Near the headers the clear coat has dulled, but otherwise it came out amazing for a broke college kid just trying to keep his only method of transportation alive.
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tl;dr I did it! It's not gonna fall apart on me anymore!

Now for that dent in the gas tank!

Side notes:
I'm reading and seeing in videos that people are having a terrible time with VHT's flameproof paint if they use a primer beforehand. I tried scratching with my nail up by the headers and it didn't leave any mark. I'll remember to come back here and leave a big warning if it starts flaking for no reason.

[Fritz]

I must admit that looks pretty good. And thanks for the tips on how to paint an exhaust. Great post!