Is all stainless steel....

milleplod

milleplod

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....the same stuff? :confused: Now I know my headers are chromed (or were, till it came off!), further inspection shows the base metal to be stainless, rather than the mild steel I expected to find. Will all stainless polish to the level that, say, BMW's stainless headers have from the factory, and then retain it (ish!)?

Any metallurgists out there? :lol:

Pete
 
Chrome plating is a dull finish, & relativley cheap...

To make it look good, it needs to be polished, and that is where the money is ;) .

Like wise there are variants of stainless steel. (brushed / polished )

Stainless does not mean rustproof though you can get localised corrosion on SS contrary to popular belief
 
No, it's all different.

St. st. headers will go a gold colour with heat. It can be polished off back to mirrorish state but it's constant work. I like my st. st. pipes in a gold colour - depends what you like!
 
Steptoe said:
..

No.
Click to expand...
:
Lovely, succinct answer there! :thumb

I know it's not all the same, in that there's austenitic, ferritic and martensitic - and I guess my headers are the former, as they're non-magnetic.

I'm just wondering if there's any point setting about polishing them if they're made of some variety of stainless that is unpolishable! :)

Pete
 
Khulu said:
No, it's all different.

St. st. headers will go a gold colour with heat. It can be polished off back to mirrorish state but it's constant work. I like my st. st. pipes in a gold colour - depends what you like!
Click to expand...

Yep, my 1200ST had stainless ones that I kept on top of - a light gold that looked very nice. If the originally-plated ones I've got ended up like that, I'd be happy. :)
 
For the purposes of your question ... yes your headers will polish up but you'll have to keep on top of them with huge regularity if you want them to stay shiny and bright. Stainless will brown off with heat after about 45 seconds regardless of how well it's polished. That said, the 'brown' ness is easily cleaned off with the Harpic product I mentioned in your cleaning thread but will require light buffing afterwards to restore the sheen.

Chrome plating will 'blue' off with heat which arguably looks quite nice depending on your view point.

I'd have them ceramic coated black or dark grey, fit them and forget them!!
 
milleplod said:
Thanks for that. :thumb2 I've found a local metal polisher, so I'm going to take them round there in the morning and see what he can do. I'll be happy if they end up like my ST ones.

Pete
Click to expand...
We have member in vjmc branch who does polishing, I asked him about doing my goldwing exhausts/ crashbars etc.

His answer, don't bother if it has started rusting/pitting. Now saving for new bits from cmsnl.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
 
Tractors are go said:
We have member in vjmc branch who does polishing, I asked him about doing my goldwing exhausts/ crashbars etc.

His answer, don't bother if it has started rusting/pitting. Now saving for new bits from cmsnl.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

There's no pitting on my headers, nor corrosion - it's as if the chrome plating has dissolved or been worn away, and what's left is still nice and smooth.
 
Remus stainless headers go a very nice golden colour from end to end. Titanium goes grey and is a booger to clean.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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