I've read a lot of controversial opinions on wrapping pipes. I decided I'd try it. What the heck, right? If they rust out in a few years, that just means it's time to go after market :biggrin: I cleaned them up really well, sprayed a light coat of header paint on them, wrapped them with 2" wide high temp fiberglass wrap I purchased from Summitt Racing. Then I put two coats of high temp header paint over the fiberglass wrap and let it soke it up really well. What a PITA to get the pipes with the cat back on. I definitely had to wait to do it when I wasn't tired and had some patience. As I was reassembling, I decided I liked the look of the rearend with just the tire and exhaust... i.e. no license plate. So I started modding the existing bracket to accept a verticle mounted plate that I'm attaching to the swingarm. I ordered some LED bolts for the plate and a black molded plate frame for a clean look. You can see roughly where the plate is being relocated to in the last pic on the bottom left of the swingarm.
You didn't want to gut the cat while everything was off? That's where a lot of the heat comes from...
I can't vouch for the Pipe Wrap job, but I have done the ceramic coating. I had the head pipes on my RVF400 ceramic coated inside and out by HPC. Having the coating inside and out allows for the majority of the heat to exit the endof the exhaust pipe instead of being convected from the pipes themselves. it makes a huge difference by cutting down on heat saturation in traffic, and that will always be good. best of all it comes with a corrosion warranty. I personally think it's worth every penny. Doing a wrap is the next best thing in terms of money and time- I'm not knocking your work at all. any reduction in heat issues will always be better for you and your motorcycle. if you do wind up going with aftermarket headers one day- take the time and money and go with ceramic coatings you'll love your self for it.
Ceramic coating isn't something I can do myself, is it? I'm kinda new to all this. I'm working on an related winter project and I figured I may as well spend the $50 on wrap and paint and see if it doesn't keep my right leg a bit cooler in the summer. I thought I'd start with this and see how it works, holds up, etc. I'm assuming doing a cermanic coating is something I have to either buy that way or take somewhere to have someone do it?
ceramic coatings are professionally applied after a cleaning proccess that allows the coatings to stick the best. That means that you will have to remove the headers and send them in or drop them off if your close. click the link below and read up. I like the part about FAA certification...... HPC, Inc also check out their friction reduction technology- I've done some of that too.
