Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Strange question.
I hope I'm proved right here, it will make my life alot easier.
I recently purchased a nice looking 97 model zx7. Its been lacking a little bit of love from its previous owners so I'm in the process of pulling the thing totaly apart and repainting, cleaning, fixing and polishing most of the bike. In the days gone by I removed the pipes from the engine, cleaned them, scuffed them up good and proper with steel wool and some light sand paper. Once they were clean I began painting them with a spray can of heat resistant paint (rated at 1200 degrees). Now the pipes look mickey mouse. Im thrilled at the way they have come out. BUT.
A friend believes (and has apparantly heard) that this method is no good. The paint is going to peel and flake off the pipes.
He believes the pipes need to be taken to bare metal. Painted on the outside well. Then thinners need to be poured into the pipes to clean them, before emptying a can of the paint onto the inside of the pipes as well. He claims the inside needs to be coated so that significant heat changes will not change the temperature of the pipe as quick, which in turn will stop the paint from peeling.
Is there any truth to this matter? Has anyboy heard anything like this?
Cause it sounds like crap to me... I'd like to slap him for sending me on a goose chase.

Any help or understanding would be much appreciated.

Slap away mate..........
sounds like complete BS

Yeah i think your mate has had too much fairy floss as a kid.

I have never heard of them being painted on the inside, far out what kind of paint could hold on in that environment? For the record, i dont think the paint on the outside will last either, but i could be proven wrong. I would be getting the pipes plated if you can, HPC I think it is called?

The product I used is called 'VHT Flame Proof Header Coating', and im sorry to say, but I quoted the temperature wrong. Its actually heat resistant up to 1093 degrees. Seems to be available in nearly all automotive and paint stores.

Mate I have used that stuff before on one of my old cars, and its pretty good, though it did start to discolour (it was white) slightly after about 12 months, but it certainly didn't flake off.

If your preperation is good, as Frank says, it should not peel off at all.

Your mate is spanking it pretty hard I think. Emptying a can of paint down the inside of the headers ?? WTF ??

HPC coating is great - one of my mates did a set of pipes for his flat-tracker XS650 with this coating. It cost a fair bit, but the pipes look like a million bucks, have not discoloured at all, and no flaking or peeling at all. Worth every cent. A place in Melbourne did it.

Ive heard HPC is the way to go. A few car buffs have suggested that as the longest lasting option.
The only product I've seen to suggest its plausable is a product called 'Blue Shield' for chrome pipes.

"Coats the interior of new header pipes, prevents heat build-up. Blue Shield disperses exhaust heat away from the pipes, protecting the chrome finish."

Here's a link to the product.
http://www.jpcycles.com/productgroup.as ... 6475942AAC

Ceramic coatings like Jet - Hot and HPC are applied to the entire header surface (inside and out) to protect the parent metal from heat build up and corrosion - in short.
VHT just looks good and will do nothing inside the exhaust. Exhaust gases are considerably hotter than the headers will ever get - disipation and all.

When I bought my old ZXr its pipes were covered in surface rust and looked like shit. I had them ceramic coated both inside and out. it also patched up a couple of small holes. This was a few years ago and it still looks the same as when i purchased it. Apparently the ceramic coating on the inside of the pipe assists in air flow by making the surface smoother and less restrictive.
The coating was also done in a chrome finish but I believe you have several different colour options.
This cost around $200 all up. I can't remember the name of the company but it was in Victoria and I got their details out of an add in Cycle Torque.

Cool, I want to do that to our zx2...just out of curiosity, what colour did you spray them?

Hey Starlet.
I used VHT Flameproof paint. Comes in a spray can and cost just under $20.
There is a few colours but they are mostly limited.
I used the stock mat black colour. I dont think there are any different shades. I think it comes in a gloss as well, but there is an issue with the gloss colours that I cant quite remember though.