Classic/IP2 black exhaust finish

[Ageing Rotarian]

Evening Gents, has anyone managed to Improve the black (chrome?) finish on either a Classic or IP2 silencer? I was looking at sprucing up the finish on the silencers and was wondering if anyone had found a suitable finish/plating process?
Looks like currently the previous owner has sprayed them mat black.
As usual any help will be appreciated
Regards
Roy

[mick695]

Hi Roy

I had my silencers ceramic coated with a matt black finish about 5 years ago... it's pretty expensive.

The silencers still look good, but showing signs of the finish breaking down on the hotter/hard to clean parts of the silencer i.e. the inside of the bends.

I think it might have been better to have prepared them back to the bare metal myself before sending them off to be coated.

Cheers

Mick

[BlackIP2]

After riding with a Classic that had polished silencers on a VMCC run back in the summer, I was very impressed with the finish and I want the polished look on my IP2 silencers.
However, on trying to clean mine up over the winter it's nigh on impossible to get the original coating off, whatever it is. I spent about 15 minutes grinding away a small area on mine with a disc fitted to a drill but the finish wasn't good enough for polishing, so I will look at doing it properly once I can get the polishing mops to work on my workbench grinder. Here's what it looked like. Luckily once it's fitted you can't really see this part.

IP2 silencer.jpg

But if I were to go to the trouble of getting mine all the way back to bare metal I would polish them rather than paint black, but each unto their own.

[Ageing Rotarian]

Gents, thanks very much for the response and it’s interesting to see how difficult the original finish is to remove. Not seen a polished set of silencers on a Classic before but can see how they would look ok.
Mick, I presume your silencers had to be prepped in some way for the ceramic coating, but I guess the coating specialist undertook all the work. If you had your time over again, would you recommend this finish or would you explore other avenues?
Thanks again gents and I will try and take some pics of the silencers for ref.
Best regards
Roy

[mick695]

Hi Roy

I'd go down the ceramic coating route again and as I said, I'd probably spend more time preping the metal than they did.

It seems more popular than it was when I got my silencers done with local firms now doing ceramic coating.... it cost a fortune to post them to the coating company

Cheers

Mick

[Ageing Rotarian]

Hi Mick, just had quote back, price was £168 plus the vodka and tonic with a £20 pound courier collection fee each way (also plus vat).
Does that sound comparable?
Regards
Roy

[mick695]

Hi Roy

Sounds about right to me... I think I paid approx £250 all in for the coating, postage and VAT...

Cheers

Mick

[Joe]

Hello Roy,

After reading your post I checked my bikes. I found the silencers on my Classic are black chrome and look ok on the areas which you can easily see but shabby low down so could probably do with a spruce up. I found my Commander which I’ve had from new has painted silencers and not looking their best at the exposed ends, these could be better and my Krauser Commander has polished silencers thanks to Richard Negus so they are good. My Interpol 11 are painted too and ok, this bike will be a donner for a project in the next few years so I’m not to bothered about them.
The first Van Veen OCR 1000 I bought (No. 13) had stood for a while and the black chrome on the silencers has some rust spots, rather odd for a stainless exhaust and the second Van Veen I bought (No. 4) had been painted with fire place paint and looks very good. It’s heat proof and easily available, I’d recommend it...... Van Veen exhaust’s are a complete system without separate silencers but do have a non removable heat shield (apparently stainless steel) and are open at each end to allow cooling air to pass through. This is similar to RE5’s.
I’m fairly sure I have a new pair of polished silencers in the garage so I’ll probably sling these on the Commander whilst addressing the paint or maybe keep them on it. I’m a rider and not into polishing my bikes but they have to be reliable and safe.
Cheers, Joe.

[johnbirchjar]

Hi Joe,nice to know you are still about and riding your rotories,J.B.

[Ageing Rotarian]

Hi Joe, interesting the different finishes on the exhausts and I guess the painted finishes were from the factory?
My Classic replica has the black chrome, which sounds the same as yours, pretty decent at the rear of the exhaust but is a little rough closer to the manifold.
The genuine Classic has painted exhausts which I assume are non standard, could they be off a commander?
A fantastic collection you have there young man, must keep you busy?
All the best
Roy

[Richard Negus]

Just to keep the record straight, very early IP2 silencers were black chrome. As a cost reduction, later IP2's, all Classics and all Commanders were fitted with the same silencers but with a sprayed black PTFE finish. That finish survived all but the hardest riders, except at the front cone section where it burned off very quickly.
R.