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So, I'm getting ready to paint my tips black on my 2012 GS Centennial. In the process of doing a thorough cleaning, I noticed two things.
First, there is a sandy grit material in the two tailpipes that do NOT have the NPP valves on them. I run the others two pipes open all the time, and my understanding is that they bypass the muffler. I have read somewhere that the sandy material could be a sign that my muffler is deteriorating. Any thoughts?
Second, there is a lot of weld slag on the tips, particularly the underside (I won't comment on the lack of GM quality control.) Is there any way to remove the slag? I was going to sand/scuff the tips prior to paint anyway, but will sandpaper take the slag off or do I need something more aggressive?
Don't know about the grit, but emory cloth is what I used to prep my Corsa tips. Then I cleaned them with brake cleaner and painted with satin BBQ black.
If it's a very light slag you may be able to sand it off, but most likely you would have to use a grinder with a #36 or a #100 grit grinding disc to smooth it out, but that will leave grinding marks and you would have to be careful to not remove the weld completely.
If it's a very light slag you may be able to sand it off, but most likely you would have to use a grinder with a #36 or a #100 grit grinding disc to smooth it out, but that will leave grinding marks and you would have to be careful to not remove the weld completely.
Thanks King. The slag is not on the weld itself but rather many little droplets on the surface of the exhaust tip.
Don't know about the grit, but emory cloth is what I used to prep my Corsa tips. Then I cleaned them with brake cleaner and painted with satin BBQ black.
Looks fantastic!!! That's exactly the look I'm going for. I bought some satin black engine paint. Did you prime first or just prep the surface with the emory cloth?
Also, how far into the interior of the tip did you go?
Looks fantastic!!! That's exactly the look I'm going for. I bought some satin black engine paint. Did you prime first or just prep the surface with the emory cloth?
Also, how far into the interior of the tip did you go?
Thanks.
No primer, just scuff up, clean and paint. I painted everything I could get to in the tips, behind the tips and the ends of the mufflers. All looks black to anyone driving behind me.
Nice thing about the paint, if it gets scuffed brake cleaner will remove it pretty easily and just repaint. I have repainted twice since 2008.
The slag can be knocked off with a screw driver, chisel, wire brush on a grinder or a sanding wheel.
If you are leaving your tips on get off what you can and then tear the Emory cloth into long strips and wrap it around the tips and pull back and fourth on the ends.
I prefer prepsol to brake cleaner http://pc.dupont.com/dpc/en/US/html/...9397_3919S.pdf
I have used both many times however on occasion the brake cleaner will leave residue that will contaminate the newly laid paint - it actually becomes reactivated by the solvent in your paint.
Paint away - it wont hard to fix any mistakes you make
Last edited by 1968swbbigblock; Feb 1, 2015 at 12:23 PM.
Reason: spelling
Did the sand in your tail pipe look something like this? Have you been running in the wet? I got caught in the rain last weekend and just now noticed a brown sandy dirty/gritty stuff in the outside pipes. I believe what is happening is when backing off the throttle the outside pips are pulling a slight vacuum and sucking in some of the wet road spray/grit caught in the turbulence behind the car.....just an idea.
To add, in the video, notice that the three large vents above the pipes are doing nothing. Hence venting them to pull air from the bottom of the car to fill in the back end void will create more down rear force, and at the same time, increase the speed of the car as well (back end turbulence drag creates a pressure wave back at the front of the car that increases its over all drag).
Did the sand in your tail pipe look something like this? Have you been running in the wet? I got caught in the rain last weekend and just now noticed a brown sandy dirty/gritty stuff in the outside pipes. I believe what is happening is when backing off the throttle the outside pips are pulling a slight vacuum and sucking in some of the wet road spray/grit caught in the turbulence behind the car.....just an idea.
Ill also be doing this "mod" once the warm weather comes around.
So you guys just use high heat engine enamel spray paint?
That's what I'm using. I'm doing it today so I'll post pics when done. I have prepped the pipes and masked the car. Just waiting for the temperature outside to get above 60, which it should by about noon in Houston...
So, I finished. Here's some pics. Of course, I got in a hurry and impatient so I have some small drips/pooling on the inner lip of the tip. I'll probably let it dry overnight and then wet sand smooth with some 800 grit paper and then re-spray a very thin coat.
Makes the car look much more aggressive, which is what I was going for...
You should be able to paint it all - just make sure you move the linkage a couple of times after you paint it, you could also put a small piece of tape over the pivot to keep it from getting painted
You did just the tips right?? It's hard to tell if the mufflers were painted because of the picture angles. I would assume you did just the tips since that's the part that's really exposed.
I wanna do mine when warm weather comes and i was debating on whether to do the mufflers as well. Because it might look funny from behind when you see pass the black tips and then see regular metal mufflers? Especially if they're dirty etc, then it'll really look funny.
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Need Tailpipe Help
