The Sturgis Shovel has seen its share of LA Harbor town back alleys in the eight years of pounding the streets around Wilmington, California. The exhaust is really starting to show the effects of the road and weather. Originally these hand fabricated pipes were painted with barbeque paint found lying around the Bikernet Intergalactic Headquarters. Surface rust was starting to take hold, and I really needed to do something about it. The Sturgis Shovel was built to be a “Take no crap, back alley brawler,” so shiny powder coating or chrome just wasn’t going to cut it. I had to research my options and come up with a quick and simple, yet great looking backyard solution to my problem.
I decided I would sand the pipes down to bare metal and spray them with VHT High Temp, Flat Black Exhaust Paint. Then I contacted J&P Cycles for a 50-foot roll of Design Engineering Inc., 2-inch Titanium Exhaust wrap and called it a day.
Once you have the pipes removed from the bike, getting the rust and old paint off is the first step. How you go about this is completely up to you, send them out for media blasting, grab your DA sander and some 120 grit, or do what I did, just pull up a lawn chair, with some 120 grit sandpaper and go to it. How you get to bare metal isn’t important, but getting there is, if you want a good looking final product.
Now, we were ready for painting or so we thought. Before you get your spray cans out make sure to degrease the freshly sanded metal with either a metal prep or lacquer thinner. There are a lot of high heat exhaust paints out there and you can use which ever brand you feel most comfortable with. I decided to go with VHT FLAMEPROOF COATING in flat black. Here’s what they say about their product:
VHT FLAMEPROOF COATING
VHT FlameProof Coating will renew and extend the life of any surface exposed to extremely high temperatures. This unique coating is a matte finish, silicone ceramic base widely used by the automotive industry on exhaust systems and the aerospace industry for jet engines, re-entry vehicles and other high temperature applications. VHT FlameProof Coating will withstand temperatures up to 2000°F (1093°C) and is ideal for use on headers, exhaust systems, or wherever an extreme temperature coating is needed.
Specs:
Temperature: 1300°F-2000°F (704°C-1093°C)
Applications: Headers, Exhaust Manifolds, Piston Domes, Inside Heads
Finish: Flat
Painting an exhaust pipe should be a simple thing, but getting them in a position that does not require you to have the flexibility of a Hollywood stripper, to paint all the surfaces can take some thought. I decided to hang it from the rafter of my patio awning which allowed me to climb all around it without having to throw my back out.
Spraying the VHT FLAMEPROOF paint is much like spraying any other spray paint. Keep the can moving, from about 8 to 10 inches away, and remember multiple light coats are better then one heavy coat. ‘
VHT recommends multiple coats with only a 10 or 15 minute time between coats if you get sidetracked and come back to spray your second or third coat after more then an hour you should wait 7 days for the paint to surface cure before you apply your next coat. So make sure that Hollywood stripper I was discussing earlier doesn’t sidetrack you or this step could take awhile.
VHT FLAMEPROOF COATING does require curing and VHT includes some specific instructions on how to do this.
Curing FlameProof
VHT FlameProof Coating only attains its unique properties after correct curing (refer to instructions on the can).
Off the Vehicle
Paint must be completely dry before curing
Heat to 250°F (121°C) for 30 minutes
Cool for 30 minutes
Heat to 400°F (204°C) for 30 minutes
Cool for 30 minutes
Heat to 650°F (343°C ) for 30 minutes
Caution: Do not exceed the temperature of the least heat tolerant component or the base metal
On the Vehicle
Paint must be completely dry before curing
Run at idle for 10 minutes
Cool for 20 minutes
Run at idle for 20 minutes
Cool for 20 minutes
Run under normal operating conditions for 30 minutes
Using the household oven was going to be a non-starter, between the pipes not fitting and the wife giving me absolutely no doubt as to what her thoughts were… I looked at the barbeque. This made perfect sense as the pipes would fit, and I do have a temperature meter on the barbeque. Unfortunatel that option was not going to be allowed either. This left me with few options and as the Sturgis Shovel is currently tore down getting a top end rebuild, curing will need to wait until after the pipes were wrapped with the DEI exhaust wrap and the Shovel was ready to ride again.
Note: I am not sure how this will turn out, so I recommend following VHT’s instructions or just not let the wife know what you plan to do with her oven. I will post an update as to the outcome of this experiment once the Shovel tears up the streets once more.
Once I finished painting and curing(?) the exhaust pipe, it was time to get wrapping. J&P Cycles has a large selection of exhaust wrap to choose from in their online catalog and after looking at all the different options I decided to order the Design Engineering Inc, Titanium Exhaust Wrap Part #308-159. I also had them throw in a package of DEI’s 8-inch Stainless Steel tie wraps to secure the ends.
The DEI Titanium wrap has some great benefits over other exhaust wraps on the market. I could tell you all about its awesome carbon fiber look, or how it doesn’t need to be wetted down before wrapping. But I will instead just let the guys at Design Engineering Inc. fill you in on the details.
Titanium exhaust wrap, with LR Technology, is made from pulverized lava rock and stranded into a fiber material and woven into a proprietary weave. Titanium wrap is engineered to be stronger than most wraps and more durable for improved thermal performance and reliability. Perfect for any automotive or motorcycle application!
•Withstands 1800°F direct/2500°F intermittent heat
•Promotes increased flow for improved performance
•Reduces temperature & vibration breakdown
•Extremely pliable for a tight and secure wrap
•DEI HT Silicone Coating not required
•Pre-wetting roll not necessary for wrapping
•Hi-tech carbon fiber look
•High resistance to abrasions, oil spills, temperatures and vibration breakdown
pasting
(Note: Design Engineering HT Silicone Coating Spray is NOT recommended for DEI Titanium Wrap.)
As usual my order from J&P Cycles showed up almost as fast as I hit the enter key on the order form. Once the wrap arrived I looked over DEI’s directions and proceeded to start wrapping the pipe.
To start the process you first must decide which direction you want the overlap to be facing as it will effect the look.
I decided I liked the look of the overlap facing the front of the bike so I started my wrap at the rear of the pipe.
Once you have made a couple of complete wraps of the pipe use a plastic zip tie to temporarily secure the exhaust wrap. Pulling the wrap tight, keep wrapping the pipe overlapping about ½- inch, at the bends you will need to stretch the wrap and vary the overlap to get a smooth wrap. Just keep wrapping until you get to the end. Keeping the wrap tight is critical to the looks of the finished product. We don’t want any loose, flapping in the wind exhaust wrap do we?
There are plenty of different ways you can do it. I prefer to wrap the exhaust wrap around the pipe pulling it tight as I go, other people will tie one end of the exhaust wrap to an immovable object and roll the exhaust pipe onto the stretched wrap. Both ways will work, so try it out and see which way works best for you.
When you get to the exhaust flange or the end of the pipe, if you decided to wrap your pipe backwards cut the wrap about 1-inch long and fold it under to hide any fraying using another zip-tie to secure this end.
Now that you are finished wrapping the pipe and are happy with the results, it is time to replace those zip-ties with either Stainless Steel Zip-ties or Stainless Steel hose clamps they will both get the job done and look good doing it at the same time.
Well that wraps it up. Now, if only I could install the bastards and go for a ride…
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