Polished Exhaust!!! :-D - The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network

75stepside · 11-27-2005, 02:17 PM

As you know, i got my 4 year project on the road in late July of this year. The last thing was getting the exhaust put on the truck. I had a local shop with a great reputation bend the exhuast - 2.5" aluminized steel. Well, i've been waiting for the chance to take down the exhuast and polish it up. It feels pretty wierd to spend 4 years building and building and building only to take some of it apart again!

I took the entire system down in about a half hour. I was a little disappointed in that the steel clamps that I had just put on less than 4 months back were rusted pretty good and this was on a truck that was never in the rain and has less than 300 miles on it! I took down the steel hangers and painted them chassis black.

For the pipe, i put a 6" soft polishing wheel from Lowes on a 3600 RPM bench grinder... and used the #3 cleaning polish bar (brown) from Lowes in step#1 and then a final step using #6 high gloss polish (green) from Lowes to complete it. It took about 8 hours to do the entire exhaust (minus the stacks, which are stainless and have yet to be done). I am very pleased with the results and am looking forward to bolting it back up - with STAINLESS STEEL clamps!

Here is the full system after i took it off. The right side is a little more complex due to routing around the gas tank... makes me wish i would have put in a blazer tank or fuel cell...

right side split polished:

contrast btwn left and right side:

both polished:

intermediate pipes polished:

full system:

phantom dually · 11-27-2005, 02:25 PM

Looks nice. To bad you dont have a polished muffler to.

**swervin ervin** · 11-27-2005, 02:40 PM

I agree. Does look real nice. Too bad it aint going to stay this way. It does make you sick to spend all this time on stuff like this for it to eventually tarnish and rust anyway.

phantom dually · 11-27-2005, 02:51 PM

Anyone had a exhaust Powder coated?? I was talkin to the owner of the Pc shop I use. He said they have certain colors that they can use that will do the high heat temps of exhaust.

75stepside · 11-27-2005, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swervin ervin

I agree. Does look real nice. Too bad it aint going to stay this way. It does make you sick to spend all this time on stuff like this for it to eventually tarnish and rust anyway.

ya, exactly! if you look in the second pic, with the first part that I polished, you can see a lil rust in the inside... I definetly think this bad boy'll rust from the inside out... for now, it looks killer tho!

**swervin ervin** · 11-27-2005, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phantom dually

Anyone had a exhaust Powder coated?? I was talkin to the owner of the Pc shop I use. He said they have certain colors that they can use that will do the high heat temps of exhaust.

You can send it off and have it ceramic coated, inside/out. If you don't do the inside too, as said, it will rust from the inside anyway. It's like fighting a loosing battle. Metal rusts just sitting there no matter if you drive it in the rain or not.

If I were real concerned about rusting exhaust, I would go with stainless pipe to begin with. Expensive? Sure. But you won't have to worry about it.

Mike

97silv5.7 · 11-27-2005, 03:29 PM

when I had my duals put on the shop used some pretty thick pipe, I swear it looks like fence post material, I figuared the rest of the truck will rust before the pipes do!

**N2TRUX** · 11-27-2005, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swervin ervin

You can send it off and have it ceramic coated, inside/out. .... Metal rusts just sitting there no matter if you drive it in the rain or not.....

Short of doing a full stainless exhaust ceramic coating is about your only practical solution.

That looks sweet 75stepside. VHT makes a high temp "ceramic" paint that would make your mufflers look like the reast of the exhaust.

*87 GMC* · 11-27-2005, 09:50 PM

I love my stainless 2 1/2 on my 87, all stainless from the manafolds (sp) back. I had only been on the truck for a month when I bought the truck, I payed less for the truck than he did the exhaust due to the tranny being hung in first gear.

Malo83 · 11-28-2005, 02:28 AM

Looks nice now but like the others said it won't last long, better to have spent a little on some Mandrel bent pipe and just had the whole exhaust painted with High Temp paint

John

*1972C10* · 11-28-2005, 03:15 AM

My 85C20 has Factory Duals From manifolds Back With Stainless 2.5 Inch Pipe And Full Lenght Heat Shields And No Cats Ever.

I wonder how well they would polish They have about 30 years of Red Pasture Dirt and Baked On Grime On Them

But I Just Recently Installed Some 40 Series Flows And Some Aluminized Dumps Made From A Summit U Bend . So Its all new From The Lead Pipes Back.

11-27-2005, 02:25 PM	#2
phantom dually Project92 SWB stepside Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Louisville KY Posts: 4,793	Re: Polished Exhaust!!! :-D Looks nice. To bad you dont have a polished muffler to. __________________ 92 C1500 stepside 496 Stroker Competiton Engineering Ladder bars/QA1 coilovers. Dana 60 rear with 4.10 gear and posi. Bonspeed Palisade 20x12 in rear w/335/30/20 and 20x8.5 front w/245/40/20. 5/8 drop with Belltech springs/DJM spindles/drop shocks. WWS Progress thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=140448

11-27-2005, 02:51 PM	#4
phantom dually Project92 SWB stepside Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Louisville KY Posts: 4,793	Re: Polished Exhaust!!! :-D Anyone had a exhaust Powder coated?? I was talkin to the owner of the Pc shop I use. He said they have certain colors that they can use that will do the high heat temps of exhaust. __________________ 92 C1500 stepside 496 Stroker Competiton Engineering Ladder bars/QA1 coilovers. Dana 60 rear with 4.10 gear and posi. Bonspeed Palisade 20x12 in rear w/335/30/20 and 20x8.5 front w/245/40/20. 5/8 drop with Belltech springs/DJM spindles/drop shocks. WWS Progress thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=140448

11-27-2005, 03:29 PM	#7
97silv5.7 MooMoo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Shapleigh, Maine Posts: 2,424	Re: Polished Exhaust!!! :-D when I had my duals put on the shop used some pretty thick pipe, I swear it looks like fence post material, I figuared the rest of the truck will rust before the pipes do! __________________ '97 ext 4x4 3" body lift and 7'6" Fisher MM2 '04 Polaris 700 twin EFI sold 2-1-07 '07 Polaris 800 twin EFI Stealth Limited Edition Support the Board! Or deal with me foo! Its all fun and games till you find out shes 16.

11-27-2005, 09:50 PM	#9
87 GMC Account Suspended Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Georgia Posts: 112	Re: Polished Exhaust!!! :-D I love my stainless 2 1/2 on my 87, all stainless from the manafolds (sp) back. I had only been on the truck for a month when I bought the truck, I payed less for the truck than he did the exhaust due to the tranny being hung in first gear.

11-28-2005, 02:28 AM	#10
Malo83 Cruzzzn' Vet Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Porterville,Ca. Posts: 1,918	Re: Polished Exhaust!!! :-D Looks nice now but like the others said it won't last long, better to have spent a little on some Mandrel bent pipe and just had the whole exhaust painted with High Temp paint John

11-27-2005, 02:17 PM	#1
75stepside Proud Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 741	Polished Exhaust!!! :-D As you know, i got my 4 year project on the road in late July of this year. The last thing was getting the exhaust put on the truck. I had a local shop with a great reputation bend the exhuast - 2.5" aluminized steel. Well, i've been waiting for the chance to take down the exhuast and polish it up. It feels pretty wierd to spend 4 years building and building and building only to take some of it apart again! I took the entire system down in about a half hour. I was a little disappointed in that the steel clamps that I had just put on less than 4 months back were rusted pretty good and this was on a truck that was never in the rain and has less than 300 miles on it! I took down the steel hangers and painted them chassis black. For the pipe, i put a 6" soft polishing wheel from Lowes on a 3600 RPM bench grinder... and used the #3 cleaning polish bar (brown) from Lowes in step#1 and then a final step using #6 high gloss polish (green) from Lowes to complete it. It took about 8 hours to do the entire exhaust (minus the stacks, which are stainless and have yet to be done). I am very pleased with the results and am looking forward to bolting it back up - with STAINLESS STEEL clamps! Here is the full system after i took it off. The right side is a little more complex due to routing around the gas tank... makes me wish i would have put in a blazer tank or fuel cell... right side split polished: contrast btwn left and right side: both polished: intermediate pipes polished: full system: Last edited by 75stepside; 11-27-2005 at 02:18 PM.

11-27-2005, 02:40 PM	#3
swervin ervin You get what you pay for Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Cherryville, NC Posts: 4,798	Re: Polished Exhaust!!! :-D I agree. Does look real nice. Too bad it aint going to stay this way. It does make you sick to spend all this time on stuff like this for it to eventually tarnish and rust anyway. __________________ Mike 1985 Chevy C-10

11-28-2005, 03:15 AM	#11
1972C10 Account Suspended Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Texas Posts: 2,686	Re: Polished Exhaust!!! :-D My 85C20 has Factory Duals From manifolds Back With Stainless 2.5 Inch Pipe And Full Lenght Heat Shields And No Cats Ever. I wonder how well they would polish They have about 30 years of Red Pasture Dirt and Baked On Grime On Them But I Just Recently Installed Some 40 Series Flows And Some Aluminized Dumps Made From A Summit U Bend . So Its all new From The Lead Pipes Back.



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