MotoHawk

Hey guys,

I've been playing with this idea for a while, haven't really nailed it down yet. My hawk has no lower cowl, and the pipes were rust colored so I decided to paint em gold yeah I'm that guy, but hey its better than underglow... been there done that... Problem is finding a gold exhaust paint. There are some yellows, but... I've tried using this VHT gold engine paint, but the heat tolerances are too low. 2 coats on and the color still seems to be slowly fading. Any ideas on how to get gold exhaust paint? Or should I just go red or yellow for the pipes? I also thought black cans would be kinda cool, but maybe thats just me. Your guys' thoughts?

NH-Raptor

I had mine ceramic coated satin black. They look great and the color does not fade. There are more colors available but I'm not sure gold is one of them. You can research that yourself. Bonus is since they have to bead blast them clean before the coating process the rust goes away. This is certainly a more expensive solution then a rattle can of paint (mine cost $135). A second option is POR15 has high temperature paint but again have a look on their website to see if colors other then black are available.

NH-Raptor

POR 15 only has black 1200 degrees F and Grey 1400 degree F colors.
http://www.ccperformance.com/ceramic_coatings.php this website has gold as a color for ceramic coating.

Good luck with your alterations.

MotoHawk

Thanks for the info! how difficult is the install? Can you do it yourself or will i need to find a shop that does powder coating?

kenmoore

Why not remove the pipes and clean them properly with wet and dry sandpaper and wd40 or a similar water dispersant.

You can polish them with a polishing wheel and autosol or a similar metal polish and they will gleam.


After a while the pipes will go a golden colour anyway.


I and many others have done this.


It's time consuming but the results are worth it and it costs very little to do.


If you do this replace the exhaust gaskets as well.


Then it's just a matter of a quick polish every month or so depending on how much crud gets on your pipes.

NH-Raptor

I had mine done at a shop that does ceramic/powder coating. I removed and installed the pipes myself and replaced the gaskets. They were around $7 each. And as to your original question the gold will look nice with the red bike although I'm partial to yellow!

captainchaos

+1 Thanks you beat me to it. Plus if you take the time to grind out the machining marks and lines and polish them smooth they'll be much easier to clean in the future. The "golden chrome" color they turn looks fantastic by the way.

MotoHawk

sweet thanks guys! I'll look into both and post some pics afterwards. Oh and exhaust gasket is a must. The first time I painted the pipes I had a narly exhaust leak... sounded pretty sweet though haha