Subject: Ceramic Exhaust Coating Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:08 pm
I'd fancied having black, rather than chrome pipes, but there was nothing that took my fancy & I really like these pipes now I've had them chopped.
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I'd had the Katana pipes ceramic coated by a company called Camcoat, based up north. They looked the dogs when I first got them, but as they were a textured finish, they turned a grey streaked finish fairly rapidly. Had to clean them with a black grate polish, which is bloody messy & a git to work into awkward spaces. Did a bit of digging & found this place - Zircotec. Had a chat & asked what the difference was between theirs & Camcoats system. Theirs is a plasma sprayed (?) ceramic thermal coating, whereas Camcoats is a paint based system. They recommended the "Endurance" finish - it's a smoother finish, so cleans up easier, big plus is they do it in a matt-metallic black, which should work well with my other painted bits (satin-black with a metal-flake lacquer).
Decided to get on with it as I'm housebound for the next three weeks at least. Pipes off this morning
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Boxed up
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Order a collection for tomorrow - £7.50, collected from home. They reckon about a 15 day turn-around - I'll update when they're back
Pipes arrived this morning - wish they had put a warning on the box reading "Do Not Open In Your Back Garden As Your Pipes Are Packed In A Bin Bag Full Of Polystyrene Packing Balls Which The Wind Will Blow All Over The Fucking Place And Your Dog Will Have Great Fun Chasing" - but they didn't !! After fighting through an incredible amount of card & bubble wrap, these came out
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Up close, the finish is slightly rough texture, which, when the sun catches it, sparkles with blues, purples & reds.
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Very good finish - feels extremely tough & looks the dogs. Not had time to do a proper fit & probably won't get round to it till Friday, but loosely fitted it onto the mounting bracket to satisfy my curiosity.
However, I think I may have gone a bit too far. I like noisy pipes (they save lives remember), but these are beyond noisy. I'm not now 100% convinced that the looks I'm getting whilst I'm out are actually of admiration. When small children put their fingers in their ears as you pass, it's not a good sign.
I took a run up to a local exhaust manufacturer to see if he could do anything to quieten them down slightly. He had a look at them, asked if they were Highway Hawks, then asked if they used to be chrome - which wasn't a difficult deduction. Then he asked if he'd cut them down for Pete (my mechanic) a few months back - followed by the inevitable "I told him they'd be too loud !!" Anyway, he's knocking up a pair of carbon-fibre end cans to slip on in the hope that they'll knock the edge off. Just enough to be a bit more socially acceptable. And there's no MOT tester on earth who'll overlook them.
Subject: Ceramic Exhaust Coating 
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Yam
by tkennar Mon Mar 20, 2023 4:47 pm