Quote:
Originally Posted by Lotus7
Painting with the correct paint and performing the surface prep might actually enhance the life of the muffler. The muffler and exhaust tips do get fairly hot but probably not more than 400 or 450 deg. F. Way below what header paint or brake caliper paint is designed to take. However that's still too hot for plain acrylic enamel or powder coating.
Getting paint to stick to the stainless surface is the challenge. You must degrease (acetone works well on SS with pure ethanol as a second choice-Vodka in a pinch) and then lightly abrade the surface (steel wool) to have half a chance of getting the paint adhere properly. High temp. paint also tends to "fade" so you may need to repaint every 2-years or so unless you don't mind a gray muffler instead of a black one.
Here's a link to some directions for muffler painting. |
Great info. How did you learn all this?
For an ordinary SW engineer and just a user of X3 who has no insight into working of automobiles (like me), this piece of information is invaluable and is like "ready to eat cooked meal". I am sure many more would benefit from it even if they just read it and do not implement in their X3. Thanks Lotus.