| Author | Message | ||
     Motorbike |
The muffler on my 08 XT with 9300 miles was looking kind of bad so I decided to have it sandblasted and ceramic coated at a small shop on the north side of the Twin Cities, MN. I got it back a couple days ago and it looks great! I just hope it holds up better than the factory paint. Before I took it to the shop, I made a couple plugs to keep sand out of the inlet and outlet pipes. When in place, just hold the bolt head, tighten the nut and the rubber expands, forming an extremely tight seal. ( I found out later that the ceramic coat shop has plugs to use for just that purpose! ) After I had it all put back together, I was cleaning up and putting tools away when I realized I had forgotten to install the little anti-rattle spring on the muffler valve. It goes from the muffler valve pivot shaft to the cable mounting bracket. I was able to get it in place without pulling the muffler back off by using a tweezer and a small wire with a hook bent on the end. Not much room in there when the muffler is installed! Thank you to all who gave recommendations when I started this project. I should mention this was only done for looks, not any increase in performance. I'm 52 years old and this thing has plenty of power for me. Here are a few pics. Before:  Weight in lbs.: (Just for fun)  Sandblast plugs:  Sandblast plugs in place:  Finished muffler:  Final Product:  Final Product:  | ||
| Djohnk |
Ha, I forgot that spring once also, just kept it until next time I had the muffler off. Looks great ... how many $$$ did it cost you? | ||
| Ratbuell |
Looks good. Most shops around here have a bin full of various sized corks. Yup. Plain ol' corks. They put 'em in any opening, or over threaded holes, to keep the powder out/off. | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
"Looks great ... how many $$$ did it cost you?" +1. "I just hope it holds up better than the factory paint". Please keep us posted. Will probably be looking at doing something like that to one or both Ulys. | ||
| Gunut75 |
How much does it weigh after coating? Looks GREAT! | ||
| Motorbike |
Thanks to all! The sandblasting and ceramic coating was $85.00. I replaced the front clamp and muffler strap with parts from H-D also so I have about $120.00 in the whole project since my labor is free. Gunut, I just weighed it for fun because I thought it seemed heavy when I pulled it off the bike. Maybe it's full of carbon and I need to go out and ride the heck out of it???? I will keep you guys posted on how it holds up but it will be a while. I store my bike in winter in MN and avoid gravel roads when I do ride so my bike may not be a good example for everyone else. Thanks. Speaking of MN winters, it is supposed to hit 50 degrees today!! Is it even that warm in Florida?  | ||
| Fltwistygirl |
"Speaking of MN winters, it is supposed to hit 50 degrees today!! Is it even that warm in Florida?" Oh yeah, it is flirting with the low 80's again today. Almost tempted to turn on the a/c at the house but it's January, that just seems wrong. It's by no means August hot, but my 3 wheeled class would have had more fun if it was a little cooler, I think. Thanks for the info, gonna monitor the muffler paint situation and maybe put it on my "to do" list for this summer when I'm up north. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Al, What's the name of the place that did the coating for you? Where are they located? I've been thinking of doing the same thing. I'm on the NW side so it shouldn't be too far away.... Looks like they did a nice job. | ||
| Motorbike |
http://www.newimagecoatings.com/ | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Will paint readily adhere to ceramic coatings? If so, I'd probably spray some hi-temp black paint over it before putting it back on the bike. It would hopefully seal any pores that might lead to rusting. It certainly couldn't hurt anything but would surely provide just a bit more longevity to the muffler. | ||
| Motorbike |
I don't know if paint will adhere to ceramic or not. I considered doing exactly what you said but decided not to because if some of it peeled off, I would have to start all over again. The owner of the shop said the ceramic will come off with a sandblaster but is much harder to get off than paint or rust. Besides, I'm not sure there is any pores to seal, it looked pretty darn good when I picked it up from the shop. I did put a few minor scuffs on it when I was trying to get that lousy spring back on the valve (after the muffler was installed) but the scuffs did not seem to go through to bare metal. Also, someone was asking it they do silver colored ceramic coating too. I asked about this and they said they do have a silver that looks kinda like chrome but to me it actually looked more like polished aluminum. Thanks. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
The silver ceramic coating does look sort of like polished aluminum at first, but turns sort of milky over time due to the heat. (just as a reference.. header is silver ceramic before turning milky, cam cover is polished aluminum, timing cover is chrome)  | ||
| Uly_dude |
Great write up Al. Thanks. That was me wondering about silver coatings. I plan to do that next winter when I rotate my engine and get at a few other items. That price seems really reasonable. Snowing in Minneapolis today - you jinx'd us! | ||
| Motorbike |
Yeah, I know, snowing down here too, and windy. Should have kept my mouth shut.... Uly dude, are you planning to re-coat the Jardine in silver too, or just the header pipes? Or is the muffler already stainless? Pkforbes87, can you please post a pic of the whole bike? That thing is show quality!! Thanks for the comments, take care. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Phil, That's the bike you rode up to Homecoming a few years back from Oklahoma. It's got one of those ittybitty seats that looks like pure torture. | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
Al, as requested:   To avoid a total thread hijack, all the photos and the story of this bike's purchase and rebuild are on this thread: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/476 23/458017.html Craig, yep that's the bike I had at the 26th. At 5'8", 140 lbs, I have an ittybitty "seat" that matches the bike's ittybitty seat  In all seriousness, the X1 seat isn't necessarily all small, but it does narrow and slope down drastically near the front. It helps short riders flatfoot the bike easier, but can be a real pain in the balls (literally) unless you lean forward into the bars and let your butt stay at the back, wider portion of the seat. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Phil, That bike is spectacular looking.    | ||
| Motorbike |
Very very nice! Love it! Thanks for the pics! | ||
| Uly_dude |
Ya baby. Awesome looking bike Phil. Yours to Al. To answer your question, the Jardine is stainless steel, so I'm just planning on silver ceramic coating the headers next yr. It's nice to know there's a place close by that's been checked out. Save on the whole shipping thing. | ||
| Motorbike |
Andymnelson had some work done at the same shop and he recommended them to me. Thank you to him! I have since found another shop that does powder and ceramic coating in Blooming Prairie, MN. I have not had any work done there yet though. Looks like a big, new, modern shop. If anyone needs the name of that shop, please PM me and I will send you that info, since they are not a sponsor. I guess the small shop I went to is not a sponsor either so I probably should not have given their name out either. They did a nice job though. Thanks. | ||
| Eulysses |
I understand the silver ceramic reflects heat back into the pipe making the pipe cooler and reducing underseat and leg heat. Yet it gets "milky" so wondering if it could be coated first in silver then black for looks? Anybody try that? Thinking about doing that. | ||
| Schwara |
will the headers still get "milky" if both the inside and outside are coated as described on A.S.B., and if so can this be polished out to return to original shine without compromising the coating? | ||
| Motorbike |
I'm not sure about any of the silver ceramic questions. I would suggest calling one of the shops and just asking. The shop that did mine is a small two man shop and they don't always hear the phone. Leave a message and they will call you back. There is one thing I forgot to mention about my experience with this. If I had to do it over again, I would have either ground or chipped off the factory weld spatter before taking it to the coating shop. I considered doing that but figured the spatter would come off during sandblasting. Wrong! I guess if that did not take it off, the little weld specks will not fall off now. But if they do, I will have bare spots and eventually rust. It would have looked just a little better if I had taken care of this. Oh well, live and learn.  | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
The headers on my X1 were coated on the inside and out. I also coated the D&D muffler on the outside. No noticeable difference in the way they've both turned slightly milky. It's not really a bad look, and I wouldn't even have mentioned it if the headers were on my Uly. (don't care near as much about keeping the uly looking good) I'd never thought of having a black coating applied over the top of a silver one. Or maybe the inside of the pipe in silver, with the outside in black? I have always heard that silver is by far the best color for heat insulation, but don't really want something shiny on my uly. I will say, I've heard that ceramic coating then wrapping over the top is a no-no. Something about too much heat being insulated, plus the wrap holds moisture which when evaporating, cooks temper out of the steel and makes the header brittle. | ||
| Uly_dude |
I'm not a big fan of wrapping headers anymore. I did that once to the pipe(s) on my XR600 and within 5 hours of riding, my header literally cracked in half. Very freaky and took a while to find the correct replacement pipe since it's an 86. After thorough inspection, I'm convinced it was the extra heat being trapped that caused these to crack. Sometimes these headers can literally glow orange. So when Al at American Sport Bike ceramic coats the headers, does he do both the inside and the outside of the pipe? That wasn't the impression I got. | ||
| Schwara |
the description online @ A.S.B. indicates that they are coated both inside and out | ||
| Uly_dude |
Ahhhhh, I missed that part. That would explain the extra cost. Wonder how they can do it on the inside? | ||
| Arry |
I was thinking of wrapping the upper portion of both pipes, now im not sure. Anyone else have bad experiences with wrapping headers | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Wrapped headers look like crap. Not that anyone asked. |
