Re-painting pipe

[Buzz Bomb]

I am going to paint my pipe and would like to know what kind of paint would work best. Would paint for painting woodstoves work since it can take high temps and is black? Also, any tips for stripping the original paint off the pipe to get a good painting surface? Thanks for any help

 

[Rooster]

Your right on track with the woodstove paint. Also look into bbq grill paint. As far as prep, a good sanding will suffice, I don't think you really need to get all the old paint off, just any surface oxidization (I hate to use the word rust) to get a nice smooth finish.

 

[MXP1MP]

I also suggest the BBQ paint I tried the Pj1 stuff and it rubbed off in like two rides and I used the whole can for one pipe which was like 4-5 coats.

 

[kciH]

I recently painted a pipe with Platikote high temp paint for exhaust headers on cars. The can says to "cure" the paint at high temperature in an oven (non-household) at 600 for 5 hours or something like that or to just run the motor to cure it. I sandblasted the pipe to bare metal and painted it. I let it dry for about 5 hours (it was touch dry in 5-10 mins), wiped the dryfall off and put it on and rode for a couple hours. It looks like new and no paint has come off so far. The biggest thing with surface prep, in addition to sanding and removing any loose paint or rust scale, is to make SURE there is no oil of any kind on the surface. When you are doing the prep and painting you should wear some clean gloves so you don't get any of the oil from yer greezy paws on it.

Good luck.

P.S. If you have a compressor, you can get a very cost effective suction type sand blaster from sears (or other places) for about $40. A bag of silica will run you about $3 at most of Menards,Lowes,Home Depot type places. These are a very handy thing to have if you have an outdoor area to use them. Don't forget to wear safety glasses,hat,and somthing over your mouth if you use one of these.

 

[Buzz Bomb]

Yup, I have a compressor. I might try one of those things you're talking about. I'll also clean out the pipe inside and out before trying to paint it again. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[jmics19067]

Yup, I have a compressor. I might try one of those things you're talking about. I'll also clean out the pipe inside and out before trying to paint it again. Thanks for all the advice.

clean out the inside of the pipe very well before you put it back on also. With that wave bounce back that is so needed with two strokes I am extremely leery and nervous of any grit finding its way back in from the wrong side. I don't know if this actually a true fear but just one of my little nueroticisms<?>

 

[kciH]

If you want to clean the pipe you could put your thumb over the silencer end and wash the inside of it with gasoline, just make sure you do this safely. When I sandblast the pipe, I put a duct tape cover over the open ends of the pipe and use a goo-gone to clean the adhesive off when I'm done. Just use some sandpaper on the very small area of the pipe that the duct tape was on.

 

[smb_racing]

take your pipe to an engine shop and have them bake it and bead blast it. The stinger area of my pipe was at least 50% blocked by carbon and it would not break loose no matter how hard I tried, the pipe also had a nasty looking coating on it (messico pipe, GG equipment) so when they baked the pipe coating was gone, carbon dried up and they blew it out, looked like a brand new pipe. I liked the bare metal look so I put on some hi-temp clearcoat and left it as is, the clearcoat didn't work so well and I have an area or two of "surface oxidation" but it still looks nice :D

 

[Buzz Bomb]

SMB-racing, how much does that cost to have the pipe bead blasted? They clean the paint off the pipe too? That sounds like a plan. BTW, whoever told me to get the sand blaster for my compressor, none of the hardware stores I checked had them! Oh well, it was worth a try.

 

[1999RM125]

In my local hardware store they had tremclad heat paint, in 2 flavors, like 500F and 800F or something, I would just sand the outside and get the 800 stuff, as long as theres no carbon (or very little) in the head part of the pipe you dont need to get it out!

 

[Buzz Bomb]

Yeah mines only got a tiny amount of carbon in it. It's not even a centimeter thick in the thickest spots. I guess I'll just sand it. But boy what a pain in the ass!

 

[smb_racing]

to have the pipe decarboned and bead blasted was right about $12 :)

 

[bad ant]

I painted the pipe on my old 93 KX a couple of weeks ago with stuff from the bike shop designed to withstand up to about 1500 deg. I sanded and wirebrushed by ass off and applied about 10 coats of the stuff and the required intervals. after the recommended drying time of 24hrs I took the bike out to a quarry to cure it by engine heat but made the mistake of getting it splashed with dirty water from some puddles in the area (all the fun of jumping large packed down gravel mounds got the better of me!) anyway it seemed to cure the mud into the paint or something cause I still havent been able to clean it all off. Next mistake was to use a little solvent on it which revealed just how much the paint had cured when I started seeing shiny steel appearing through the paint :O. Anyone have any tips on curing? I think I'll try the oven trick next time

 

[motometal]

yea, take the pipe to a heat treat shop, foundry, or tool and die shop that has a furnace to bake it in. You may have to shop a bit to find someone nice enough to do it cheaply. I am going to bake mine tomorrow, haven't found any info on how hot to go. Ordinary oil starts smoking about 270-300, and turns to goo at about 400 I think. I'm trying to get by without trashing the stock paint job, so I'm thinking 450 or 500?

Any input?

 

[splatt]

VHT header paint works well butt is a pain in the a$$ to apply. As for curing it I carefully used a propane torch. After two rides I found a crack in the pipe and just replaced it.

Steve

 

[smb_racing]

Motometal, I believe the temp they used for my pipe was right about 550, it took several hours for them to get it done, basically all it does is dry out the carbon so that it's brittle enough to flake easily, I didn't worry about the coating on my pipe though, I just had them bead blast it and then clearcoated it.

 

[madmatt]

I sanded the hell out of my pipe with 150, then 200, and then 500 grit sandpaper and then washed it with soap and water and then dried it. Then I went to AutoZone and bought that 1200 degree engine paint and used the whole damn can on it. I allowed it to dry 24 hours and then was about to put it in my girlfriends oven to cure it.

She didn't think that was such a good idea (something about making her house stink), so I just put it on the bike and ran it up and down the street until it was really hot. That seemed to work pretty well, since i didn't get any dirty water on it like bad ant did.

Pipe still looks great today!!

 

[FDR492]

do you all paint your pipes black i hope?

 

[motometal]

I baked mine at 600 F, didn't hurt the stock paint, worked ok. I think 650 or higher would work even better.

The best paint job I ever did was with the type of high temp paint you bake in an oven. This is done at a higher temp than what the pipe will run just riding the bike. I have found that this type of paint is relatively soft until it is baked properly (and just bumping it the wrong way before baking can leave a blemish in the paint job)

 

[Peer Lovell]

I found a great paint at Wal Mart. Its Dupli ceramic header paint. Its been a year and it holds up great.

 

[madmatt]

I actually thought about paining mine a nice yamaha blue color to match the frame. I found some of that 1200 degree paing that was blue and almost bought it. I thought that it would look kinda stupid though, so i didn't.

 

[riddick2424]

i have a 92 WR250 and the paint on the pipe was looking bad so my mom said i should try this BBQ paint she had. I cleaned it with soap and water didn't sand it at all. then i put 4 or 5 coats on. its been on there for 2 months now and is holding up great