Topic: Caliper and Exhaust, new or restore?

[motopilot]

Hi everyone,

Got some parts off my CB550.

Caliper looks in good condition, the headers are very rusted and pitted however.
What do you experts think? get new ones or try and restore these.

Thanks.

[754]

Paint or polish caliper.
 only option for exhaust  is paint.. well there is wrap , but myself I won't consider it..

[Scott S]

 But use caliper paint on the brake parts. Brake fluid will ruin regular spray paint.

[jlh3rd]

well, there are a few places that will re-chrome headers. I think one was in erie, Pa.....For s-#$s and giggles I inquired about having a set of 550F headers redone a few years back...$1000 was the quote....

[ekpent]

 Sometimes rusty headers will surprise you when you apply some elbow grease. Try some WD40 or what I like soapy water and #0000 steel wool and see what you get then decide. Don't think they will ever be show quality though.

[BenelliSEI]

+1 to Ekpent. I usually clean pipes up enough to get the bike running (yours look perfectly serviceable, appearance doesn’t effect performance). You can spend your cash on stuff that MUST be replaced, then decide what your budget can handle. Good luck with your project.

[spotty]

Paint the headers black, actually any colour, they'll end up black anyway, be prepared to do touch ups from time to time
I used to paint mine orange with black tiger stripes and they'd look awesome for about an hour as the orange turned cherry red, then they'd turn black anyway.......
You can use potbelly black paint that will stick and stay looking good for quite a while

[motopilot]

Thanks everyone, I think I will probably end up painting them and seeing how they hold up, if they don't look good then I can buy new ones or maybe wrap.

[motopilot]

Paint or polish caliper.
 only option for exhaust  is paint.. well there is wrap , but myself I won't consider it..

Whats the drawback of wrapping?

[spotty]

Paint or polish caliper.
 only option for exhaust  is paint.. well there is wrap , but myself I won't consider it..

Whats the drawback of wrapping?

Holds moisture against the metal therefore promotes rust, also people will assume you're a hipster......also when it gets dirty it stays that way, you'd probably end up painting it black anyway

[motopilot]

Whats the drawback of wrapping?
[/quote]

Holds moisture against the metal therefore promotes rust, also people will assume you're a hipster......also when it gets dirty it stays that way, you'd probably end up painting it black anyway
[/quote]

haha ok, I reckon ill just paint them black or buy new ones if I want them chrome, Ill decide once I put the bike back together. Thanks.

[Doobie]

Holds moisture against the metal therefore promotes rust, also people will assume you're a hipster......also when it gets dirty it stays that way, you'd probably end up painting it black anyway

Years ago, I wrapped headers on a cafe racer I owned. I decided I didn't like the look of the wrap after about three weeks and when I took it off, I discovered the wrap had baked on and stained the headers -- they looked like crap forever after.


Hipsters wrap from the headers down, with the seams facing up, which is where dirt/water collect. The seriously cool people wrap up to the cylinders with the seams down.

[754]

Wrap just looks really cheap and crappy in my personal opinion.
 I can see using it in a race car to keep engine bay heat down. Or maybe on a wayto far gone set of pipes on a bike that even paint won't help..

[spotty]

it has also been suggested that some might use it to patch ground out collector boxes to get through inspections, even i wouldn't go that far.....if it can't be fixed with aloominum cans and wire i'm not interested

another seemingly legitimate reason i have heard for the use of exhaust wrap is to keep the temp constant throughout ther length of the pipe, this apparently promotes exhaust flow rather than the freshly burnt gases hitting varying temps as it flows away from the head. the theory being that as the gas passes along the pipe and cools it becomes denser and therefore causes resistance
if you can keep the heat even then in theory the gases will flow better

more knowledgable / qualified people please feel free to pipe up ( see what i did there ....) and disprove/amend/shoot down in flames ( see i did it again ) this theory as i'd love to have another reason to s whenever i see someone who thinks their exhaust pipes look good in beige