Pimp my expansion chamber

**WRT** · 8th May 2006, 13:05

Well, not pimped exactly, but it was looking pretty tatty so I figured I'd give it a lick of paint. Decided on the proper colour for a bit of bike painting and detailing, black black black.

Spent about an hour or so with a wire brush to tidy it up before painting, then washed it down with a rag and some meths to get rid of the dust. I didnt worry about sanding it (although the surface was a bit pock marked in by the manifold end), as I figured it wont be too long before its had some knocks and stone chips anyway.

The paint I used was just some manifold paint that I got at Bunnings, it was fairly cheap, around $10-15 if I remember rightly (the paints been sitting on the shelf for a bit as one of those "round-tuit" jobs). I used the entire can, spraying it on in three consecutive nights, just misting it on, allowing it to dry, then a little bit more, and so on. The finish came up looking mint, you can see from the before and after pics below just what a difference it made. The kickstart has a small amount of play in it, enough to let it tap on the exhuast, so I found an old bit of garden hose and slid that over the kickstart to stop it making too much of a mess of my handiwork. Might try to find a clear bit at some point so its a little less obvious tho.

The last pic is what it looked like two hours after fitting, after a few laps of the Waterford MX track . . . ah well, it was a fun little project anyway.

**Mr. Peanut** · 8th May 2006, 13:09

Cool, I bought some of that paint too, gonna do my NSR chabers, did you remember to heat cycle it?

**WRT** · 8th May 2006, 13:17

Nah, I figured it'd get hot enough from running!

I didnt go all out on it, partly because I was just doing it as a trial to see how well it works, partly because I was on a tight timeframe before I was back out riding, and partly because the expansion chamber sits right in behind the front wheel, you can see just from the mud how much crap gets flicked up at it. It survived the mud ok, but imagine what its like when your on gravel! Cant see any paint surviving very long there when its getting continually pelted by 100kph stones.

For something like the NSR tho, would highly recommend spending a bit more time and effort on it, it'll be well worth it in the end. Its a cheap way of really tidying up the appearance of the bike.

**cheese** · 8th May 2006, 15:48

yeah I was thinking of doing mine, but I'll wait and do a full touch up I think. I'm going to give my frame a paint up at the same time. I was thinking of getting the entire thing dipped and powder coated (the frame, not the exhaust, but I hear they come up pretty good when acid dipped)

any good places to use?

**MrMelon** · 8th May 2006, 16:23

I did the same thing to my street magic expansion chamber after getting it fixed up. Cleaned it off with a wire brush, then gave it a quick spray with some rust inhibitor and washed that off before starting to paint it. I just used some of that cheap black high temp exhaust paint and gave it 3 coats. It came up mint.

**F5 Dave** · 9th May 2006, 17:42

Never seems to stick or last that can spray paint.

The possible exception is that PJ1 paint some bike shops have (they have a high temp chamber paint & another enamel black for something else which is good on wheels).

But, I did send my RZ chambers in to some chap to acidbath them first. This alone probably aided the adhesion by a large amount, but the paint lasted really well.

**kro** · 13th May 2006, 21:37

VHT flameproof (1350deg C) is magic stuff, i used to revamp the old RD250 with that stuff, it sticks like faecal matter to a woolen bed cover.
Nice looking job WRT, I have been busy doing up the old DR, and when i rip the engine apart, I was going to do a bit of that as well.

**F5 Dave** · 15th May 2006, 10:26

Funny, I've had only temporary success with VHT. I think this is leading to preparation of the surface being critical, any oily residue will hamper long term stickability.