High Temp Black chrome paint?

My headers aren't looking too well. A lot of chips on it. The mufflers look ok though. Is there such a thing as black chrome paint? I've checked autozone and kragen, and haven't found anything. Tried a google search and am coming up with blanks. Bah, just would hate to have to shell out $300 and up to chrome these pipes right now. Looking for a short term solution. Thought about painting it black, but I don't think it will look good.

scuff it up and shoot it with black paint this was an old dumpster dive header i scuffed up the chrome on and painted

If you are attempting to recreate the so-called Kawasaki 'black chrome' finish, you may not be able to do it for large items, like mufflers or headers. It is possible to do it on small items as there are kits available from Caswell plating, etc that resemble this type of finish. The Japanese bike producers of the era all used that type of finish for their exhaust systems for a number of years and I have heard that the reason it is not currently available is that there are some environmental concerns regarding the plating process.

Your bike looks great with the black pipes plummen..not too sure though how mine will look. I really like the black chrome look though.

So Mcdroid what do you mean by "so called"...are the kits a spray paint type finish...and kawasaki used similar kits like these?

That's too bad, I really like the black chrome look. Was even thinking about doing my handlebars black chrome.

The Spectre should look good w black pipes. Not sure about header paint, but engine paint comes in gloss, semi-gloss & flat black. As for rechroming, a chromer may not do your old pipes because their plating solution will get contaminated w rust, dirt & debris.

sakiguy wrote:

Your bike looks great with the black pipes plummen..not too sure though how mine will look. I really like the black chrome look though.

So Mcdroid what do you mean by "so called"...are the kits a spray paint type finish...and kawasaki used similar kits like these?

That's too bad, I really like the black chrome look. Was even thinking about doing my handlebars black chrome.

The original black chrome finishes were not a spray-on finish but were an actual plating process similar to those currently being offered by Caswell Plating...but on a much larger scale...you might explore a black ceramic finish though...some KZR members have done that and although pricey, it looks good.

JMKZHI wrote:

The Spectre should look good w black pipes. Not sure about header paint, but engine paint comes in gloss, semi-gloss & flat black. As for rechroming, a chromer may not do your old pipes because their plating solution will get contaminated w rust, dirt & debris.

Chromers replate rusty stuff all the time.They clean it first in a degreasing solution and then dip it in an acid to remove the rust.You may be able to use epoxy caliper paint if you can find it in black.There are several possibilities for the rear half, but the front half is going to be tougher since it gets a lot hotter.

You can have a sevice performed called jet-hot.

Its a super high temp powder coating process that coats the inside and out of the product and can withstand thousands of degrees heat and lasts very long in years.

They have some color options, including sterling that is really identical to silver. I've seen it myself, mirror finish!

They can even coat piston faces and skirts! :huh:

Cheers.

Thats expensive and I've heard of people having issues with durability of the coating when its not applied to new metal.

Jet-Hot is the largest ceramic and high performance coating company in the world.
They do stuff for NASA... :huh:

If there were some coating isues, considering there rep, I would hope that they would warrant that!

It cost me about $12-foot for my exhaust. I paid just over $200.

Agreed, that could be expensive for some... chrome is just a little more too.

I just dont really like rattle can results on exhausts. It's never durable enough darnit!