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Yes, you read that right, I finally painted my own exhaust tips using the Rustoleum 2000º high heat automotive spray paint. My original intention was to only paint the backward faces and leave the rest stainless steel. But when I tried to mask them and removed the tape after painting, I just couldn't get a perfect paint stainless edge. So I had to remask everything and paint the whole tip, exterior as well.
Then after painting (primer, flat black, gloss clear) I was unhappy with the uneven appearance of the gloss clear, and how it accentuated my paint imperfections. Had I done these right the first time- i.e., committed to painting the entire tip and not had a false start - there would have been less paint glommed up and it would have come out better. Anyway after the clear looked uneven I did one more (very light) shot with the flat black. Now it looks fine, very low key. I like it.
That was before I went back with the flat black. Not so shiny now. But looks professional, i.e., not like somebody sprayed the exhaust of their $60K sports car with BBQ paint. Much more understated and badass, I never liked those honkin exhaust horns and they haven't grown on me. But take them down with the black and they work well to my eyes, particularly with the semi-murdered black on red look I have going on with my Z51.
It was a real pain in the *** to mask this - and a BIGGER pain to get all the tape off. If I have any issues with the finish, I'll bring it to my body shop and he'll drop that rear bumper, strip the paint off the stainless tips and then re-do this right. Easy job if you drop the bumper and throw this up on a lift, and that's how he would do this. Maybe he'll charge me $250-$300 to do all that. But for now I'm pleased with the results.
Of course I am having to clean mine so often (Z06) that I think if I just quit cleaning them so often they would be naturally black coated after a few weeks
Z06NJ, the only problem is it does get harder to remove the longer it is left on. I find a quick wipe with a paper towel and WD40 once a week takes care of it. My ATS 3.6L (direct injection also) gets driven more miles and once a month cleaning keeps the pipes pretty clean.
My 2006 GMC diesel pickup (built prior to diesel particulate filters) has a properly sooted up black pipe and requires no pipe cleaning. Under a burst of full throttle it will generate a nice black smoke screen and I am generally pretty nice about it but last year I had to follow a bicycle rider for over 8 miles on Little River road in the TN Smoky mountains who rode in the middle of the lane and refused to use any of the pull over passing spots. I was first in line behind him and the traffic jam behind us was as far as my daughter and I could see. When we finally reached a passing zone I left him in a very much deserved thick cloud of black smoke and I hope he enjoyed the taste and smell of it as much as I enjoyed providing it for him.
The process: Rustoleum 2000º Automotive spray paint (Lowe's carries it), get the primer and the flat black. I also got clear, but more on that later. The exhaust tips are accessible without removing the rear bumper or putting the car on a lift, but either of those actions would eliminate what is by far the most frustrating and time consuming part of this: trying to fit your hands in the space between the rear bumper opening and the tips to mask them off. If you dropped the bumper and put the car on a lift, that would be a snap.
I used citrus degreaser and scotchbright pads, then cloth towels to degrease and clean the tips inside and out. After careful masking I'd say 2-3 coats of primer, if it's a warm dry day leave say an hour between coats, increase time to dry as humidity goes up and temps get cooler. After primer is thoroughly dry 3-4 coats of flat black. Keep the coats as light as you can. That's how I wound up with too much paint- the abandoned plan to paint inside the tips. Just keep the primer and then black coats very light and let the coats dry thoroughly before proceeding. I had initially applied clear (it's semi-glossy) but it really didn't look good so I went over that with a light coat of flat black, now it looks way better and understated.
You don't see very many C7s around in many places, the black exhaust tips are a nice way to separate your car from the masses by going LOWER key, not more garish. That's the best part.
I didn't have good luck with the clear but now my tips are flat black, I really like the look it's badass and very understated. Once the paint dries Rustoleum wants you to use the heat from your car's engine to cure the paint. Run the car for 10 mins @ idle to start the paint curing process. Then let it cool for 10 mins. Then run the car for 20 mins and then let it cool for 20 mins. Finally DRIVE the car for 30+ mins and the paint should be cured
I thought I could paint the rear faces- MUCH harder than I realized because then you have to have a sharp consistent edge between the raw stainless and the flat black, and that was almost impossible to achieve, so I painted the entire tip inside and out. Looks much better if you paint the tip inside and out, not one or the other.
Now we'll see how long it holds up. Looks great for now.
If were going to do it, I would just pull the catbacks and send them out to powder coat- less hassle and will last indefinitely. Looks like you did a great job though. As for cleaning polished stainless tips, I spray mine down with purple power degreaser when I wash my car and let it sit for a few minutes. Any carbon build up wipes right off.
if this paint doesn't last I'll give it to my local body shop guy who will pull the bumper, put it on a lift, strip the paint off the tips and start from scratch and do it right. But I may have not done it so wrong after all. Only time will tell.
It looks good now, but I don't think it's going to age very well after exposure to road grime. You'll probably end up re-doing it fairly often.
What do you base that speculation on? Is the painted surface harder to wash? Does it get stained over time from road grime? Is this from experience with another car where the owner painted the exhaust?
One nice thing about the flat black is that it's forgiving: I think you can fine sand it as needed (I have 400-800 grit very fine sandpaper), then lightly re-prime and re-spray just using light cardboard (hand held, you slide it over or under the tips) as a mask.
We'll find out. It's worth it. Good grief the car looks 10x better without those idiotic stainless cartoon horns staring me in the face. WTF were they thinking with that in the GM styling dept.? My own thinking is they had a Styling Seance to communicate with great deceased designers and they got their signals crossed and wound up channeling Dr. Seuss.
I'm not basing it on "speculation", but upon having done the same thing to many exhaust tips over the years and having to do it over fairly often. The matte or flat color without an outer coating will get dirty and dull with age, road grime exposure and carbon emissions mixed with condensation. There's no way to "polish" it or make it look clean.
For long term durability, powder coating is the way to go.
05-15-2017, 09:53 PM
Pcad's C7 black exhaust tip saga concludes
