I picked up my Ron Wood Racing exhaust after getting it nickel plated at a local shop. I had time tonight to buff out one of the head pipes - Check it out.

 

How much did that cost? Is it effective against heat or just looks? Better than chrome? How about ceramic? Sorry for all the questions. lol

 

I did a lot of research before I did this. I can tell you that Nickel plating is really made for exhaust. It dissipates heat much better than chrome, and will not burn off, flake off, or wear off from normal polishing like Ceramic Coatings. It looks similar to chrome, but its much more durable. It will turn blue at the head pipes, and turn a light gold everywhere else- if you dont like that color, you can just use some Mother's Metal polish get it back to the original color. I had a .0008 thickness done to mine so it would stand up to heavy polishing. As far as price, I got a deal, but they normally would charge $195 for a complete plating. The inside glass pack wall was also coated (thats the heavy steel screen on the megaphone), and now it will not rust, inside or out. I can see a real application here for those that have the Ron Wood Racing headpipes with the ceramic coating that burns off in just a few days of riding. You could just do the head pipes and it should only cost about $15 bucks each.

 

Can you do this with a stock RWR pipe?

 

You'd have to make sure that the ceramic coating was gone - EVERYWHERE. If there is anything on the pipe, the plating will not go there. Because mine was so rusty on the inside, I just went a head and ordered one from Elliott without it being finished.

 

Let us know how it holds up after a few rides...It looks great..I just had my pipe recoated ( Ceramic) by the place that coats the pipes for Woods, after a couple of rides the head pipe is very dull, and won't polish.. the rest has started to show rust, but I keep on it, so it looks good..

 

Gee Marky...I fugured you were a MBRP man?![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

I'm a quality man! Just cuz......... well you know......, wont ever stop me from my search for quality. Some thought I was a TBR man too, or a HiperTech Man. You guys should know me by now. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Wayne,

The Nickel plate people also mentioned that after I polish it with Mothers or with Compound and a wheel, that I needed to cut the wax coating left from the polishing with Amonia Water (about 1/2 water and 1/2 amonia) this way the wax compounds wont burn on the exhaust when it heats up. I dunno if that would make much of a difference or not, but thats what they said. I'll let you know.

 

I got done polishing the pipe today, here are some pics of the final.


Close Up

All the parts