Anyone Know Factory Finish on Exhaust Pipes For 86 Vfr700?

Hey guys,

I'm swapping in a replacement engine into my white 86 vfr700 and I wanted to redo the exhaust while I have easy access to the rear 2 pipes.

Does anyone know what it had from the factory? My mufflers are steel painted silver. Did the pipes have some kind of flat black finish?

I've got a sandblaster and was thinking of using a high temp ceramic paint like VHT and cure it in the oven as per the directions. Anyone done that before?

I still don't know whether to go with flat black pipes or maybe silver. What do you guys think?

Just to throw it out there, getting the pipes professionally coated with either powder or ceramic is kind of out of my budget unless you guys really think it's the only way to go.

 

I think it was just high temp black.

If you're going to get them coated, I would suggest Jet Coat. Although standard grill paint slowly baked with exhaust temps will do.

Larry

 

I was looking at Capt B's bike which is super low miles and the 4 front pipes look like raw metal, then the 2 to 1 section before the mufflers looks flat black. I'm wondering if the 4 front pipes ever had a coating on them?

 

From what I can tell the headers never had any coating on them.

 

Dukiedook is right. My 87 was bought with 1800 miles, and the header pipes were naked. So were my cousins on his 87. My current 86 there are naked too. I am going to pretty up the Cobra F1s that came with my bike, so I am in the same situation you are, trying to decide on paint. My oven is too tiny for mine, so I am gonna wire wheel them as clean as I can, and use high temp flat black..

 

That's what I was starting to suspect. They seem to be steel as a magnet sticks to them, but why aren't they corroded with rust after all these years? Is it a special mix of steel?

I'm having the 2 rear pipes behind the engine ceramic coated flat black for $50. That way I can get them back fast and get my "new" motor installed. Later on when the funds are there I'll do the front 2 pipes. maybe by then I'll find a shop that can do gloss black. No one locally seems to do gloss ceramic. I think gloss black looks real nice.

 

Engine down pipes

Hi, the down pipes on UK models at least were S/S of an austenetic type which is why a magnet sticks to them. I remember buying a brand new vfr750 in 1986 and spending all day polishing the down pipes, complete waste of time, first ride out turned a nice gold then got darker and darker. I have a 1986 white vfr now which still has original exhaust, amazing considering our climate.

 

When you say S/S I assume you mean stainless steel?
That's interesting because I did the magnet test on mine and the straight sections were different from the bends. Very strange.

Anyway, I just got my rear 2 pipes and nuts back from being ceramic coated flat black. Here's a before and after:








These bolts were extremely rusty:

 

Now the nice freshly coated parts:







The nuts are pitted on the exterior only, but they sure do look nice now. Pitted, but pretty. It's also good to know they won't get rusted up anymore.



Over all I'm glad I decided to go ceramic. It's way tougher than any paint plus and it should last much much longer.