Chroming exhaust pipes?

[jellywrestler]

The original pipes were made from sheet, and made by hand quite painstakingly I imagine. But aesthetically they would look the same to make new ones the way described.

You know about this Spyda?

old mcdonald had dyslexia eiiue

[AllanB]

I do remember seeing square forks on a chopper years back.

[actungbaby]

I'm about to get a set of pipes re chromed but they need a bit of work before hand. Basically normal chrome work has a copper base problem is the copper will bubble on a exhaust pipe so what other metal applications do people use to fill in any pits etc????

having copper is nothing to do with bubbling thats cause by improper prepartion of the steel before hand.

i did chrome plating will very good company in chch in 80.s

My old boss vic said copper was waste time before hand .

We only nickle plated then i chrome plated 1 min of that 20 + of the nickel .

Nickel is very expesive to buy brought in 20 kg tims like little nuggets .

cheap skates probley flash copper plated then nickel plated then chrome.

TO get great finish its always how well the stell is poilished first with course

Belt then with fine one.. thats it ..u got pits the nickel only show them up

more.. di cast is the worst we call it shit metal . alot car parts where

made of this poor quilty it often bubble ..chrome by itself looks like

Grey mess like zinc plating .. its coating of nickel gives its shine.. chrome

is a cover . think its porus though not sure on that..

If you look carfully on chrome plated iten around any holes gaps, you hold to l

light , u see brown tinge thats nickle coating chrome is lazy, its electroplating.

U have postive and negtive and object is submerged in solution.

and attracts it to the metal .. chrome plating is chromuin solotuion orange.

With lead chromium bars . with nickel plating you have bags with nickel

chips and, is filtered very finally to take out any imperities .

so as chrome plater i just have to esimate how much current to use

for size the piece or item to much u burn it much burn it on edges..fixed with polishing. you dont want do that as extra work for nickle platers ;-)

to little and wont trow well enough and you get the tarnish looked over time

the brown tinge around any gaps holes etc. id di thounds of russle hops kettles

still remember 200 amps each or 400 for two..i was always last to finsish grrr

and go home boss be wating patiently .. got covers on yet pat opps..

good days paid well too best paying job ever had . brought lots new hondas.

[actungbaby]

Give this a wee perusal.......http://www.classickawasaki.com/plating.htm



This is the time consuming and expensive part: polish away all the rust and imperfections until the item to be chromed is so highly polished that it looks like it is already chromed! Each one of those small rust spots on the item will double or treble in size as the acid eats away the corrosion. These blemishes then have to be totally erased in the polishing process – the very worst cases would require “triple plating” this process involves polishing the metal, plating it in thicker copper, polishing the copper and then plating again with chrome.

no no yuk copper why ?? nickel plating dude your right on the poilsihing

if something chrome plated u have acid stip them back to bare steel.

Mind you got be enough metal there or you have nothing left.

[Grumph]

For those who are saying "make new pipes" - have a bloody good look at the pics. Steve Roberts as usual has done it the hard - and unique way. I've never seen or heard of bending formers which will do square tube on the diagonal axis - they're all conventional bending in the plane of two sides. Making fresh from laser cut sheet isn't really a starter either as looking at those pipes I'm sure Steve has expanded and shrunk pieces to suit....

So Spyda it's fill the pits on what you've got...don't you own a gas plant ?

It'll be a lot of work but as I've said, you'll only do it once....

[Drew]

For those who are saying "make new pipes" - have a bloody good look at the pics. Steve Roberts as usual has done it the hard - and unique way. I've never seen or heard of bending formers which will do square tube on the diagonal axis - they're all conventional bending in the plane of two sides. Making fresh from laser cut sheet isn't really a starter either as looking at those pipes I'm sure Steve has expanded and shrunk pieces to suit....

So Spyda it's fill the pits on what you've got...don't you own a gas plant ?

It'll be a lot of work but as I've said, you'll only do it once....

Yeah, I know it's not likely possible to bend them. After seeing it, the radius would be too tight even if anyone could bend them on the diagonal axis.

[jellywrestler]

the straight bits are simple box section, the bits in between are hand formed, no grumph I don't own a gas set, got a tig.
I'm not worried about the time just the right process that's all

[Drew]

the straight bits are simple box section, the bits in between are hand formed, no grumph I don't own a gas set, got a tig.
I'm not worried about the time just the right process that's all

I realise the rebuild thing is absolute bottom of your list of ways to fix it bro, I'm just sorta interested and spit balling for it's own sake.

Are all the bends on the headers the same? I think with computer modeling the cuts of sheet could be made with little or no effort. TIG weld instead of gas as Roberts likely had to do it, and the clean up becomes less intensive too.

Would be interesting to see what Sketchy could come up with.

If it comes to it, I think it's a better option than trying to fix pipe that is too thin or pitted.

[jellywrestler]

I realise the rebuild thing is absolute bottom of your list of ways to fix it bro, I'm just sorta interested and spit balling for it's own sake.

Are all the bends on the headers the same? I think with computer modeling the cuts of sheet could be made with little or no effort. TIG weld instead of gas as Roberts likely had to do it, and the clean up becomes less intensive too.

Would be interesting to see what Sketchy could come up with.

If it comes to it, I think it's a better option than trying to fix pipe that is too thin or pitted.

it's not at the bottom to rebuild and i'm seriuosly considering at least make the rear sections again, it's not hard to do these just patience then they will be new and no they're all custom bends and that's part of the beauty of it all there's definetly a few imperfections but it's all hand built.
fun fun fun is all i can say.
i'm going to borrow a gas set so i can go grumph's way i'm thinking

[Drew]

it's not at the bottom to rebuild and i'm seriuosly considering at least make the rear sections again, it's not hard to do these just patience then they will be new and no they're all custom bends and that's part of the beauty of it all there's definetly a few imperfections but it's all hand built.
fun fun fun is all i can say.
i'm going to borrow a gas set so i can go grumph's way i'm thinking

Lets have a pipe building party!

You have pipes to make templates from, arts and crafts time cutting out cardboard patterns. Maybe not so much booze for the weldy weldy time though.

[Grumph]

Personally, I'd probably use nickel bronze as the filler. Flows well and is harder than "normal" bronze rod so should polish better.

Try and get unfluxed rod and mix up the flux as a paste then paint it on to avoid over fluxing as it's a right pain to remove.

i understood Drew wasn't allowed access to scissors or sharp tools.....

[Drew]

i understood Drew wasn't allowed access to scissors or sharp tools.....

I can do the tracing. I'm real good at staying inside the lines an' everything. I been practicing like!

[fridayflash]

gidday jellywrestler, is that the warlock? im sure ive seen that bike before

[AllanB]

the straight bits are simple box section, the bits in between are hand formed, no grumph I don't own a gas set, got a tig.
I'm not worried about the time just the right process that's all

The huge advantage you have over the original builder is that you already have a existing set of pipes to use as a pattern for the bends - as you note the straight bits are box section - bends welded on no doubt.

It will be a test for sure but infinitely easier than the task the original builder set himself!!!!

[Drew]

The huge advantage you have over the original builder is that you already have a existing set of pipes to use as a pattern for the bends - as you note the straight bits are box section - bends welded on no doubt.

It will be a test for sure but infinitely easier than the task the original builder set himself!!!!

Been thinking about how to do them from scratch actually. A wonder if he made them with four bits of wire to represent the four corners. Then lay card over and trace shape to cut.