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January 27, 2008
Exhaust Coating
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been planning to take the 750's exhaust in for ceramic coating. I asked the folks at PJ's who they used, and they could not think of anyone working in the area locally. I asked my welder-neighbor about who they used, and he recommended Southwest Plating, who in turn referred me to a person named "Robert" who picks up specialty stuff once a week and ships it off out the area to be coated. Robert then referred me to Team Synergy (in Albuquerque's Midway industrial park, just across the gravel yard and the North Diversion Channel). "Bobby" was out when I dropped off the header for an estimate, but I spoke for a while with his mom. While there, I picked up a couple of brochures, one for PJ's and one for my gearhead-neighbor across the street.
Mike at PJ's appeared to be glad for the info, though he most often appears to say whatever the customer wants him to say. Turns out my neighbor across the street had already used them for the header on his "Pink Panther" Challenger, which he sold last year. Evidently, a concours-restoration project was too much for him to carry forward. Exhaust headers get pretty hot and they tend to cook off their own paint (and subsequently rust). Moreover, the heat they radiate places additional strain on surrounding components.
But I digress.
Once the folks at PJ's removed the exhaust and the wrap, it became clear that the wrap was in fact concealing a fair bit of rust. The rust was not limited to the header (which I had planned to have coated) but the intake end of the mufflers as well.
I decided to bring the mufflers over to the coater to see whether the mufflers should be disassembled to have the ends coated. The process allows for masking off of parts of pieces but since the only part I was concerned with leaving original was the "Fast By Ferracci" emblem, I decided to have the cans coated as well. After all, they get hot too. The emblems will have their rivets drilled out and will be replaced once the cans are coated.
Having the cans as well as the header coated effectively doubles the cost of the transformation, but I hope the results will be worth it. I am tempted also to have the Morini's header and exhaust coated the next time those pieces are removed from the bike, should it turn out that Team Synergy knows its stuff.