Exhausting paintjob

Yesterday, I have occupied myself with the respraying of my exhaust manifolds with heat-resistant paint. As you can see: it was urgent.


I had already resprayed them partly last autumn, but I only had time for one coat and even then only on the parts I could reach. This time I decided to take the whole thing off, sand it down properly and give it a thick coating of paint.
Actually, taking off the pipes was surprisingly easy: I only had to loosen up the radiator (two screws), unscrew the four bolts with which the pipework is connected to the engine block, and unscrew the two support points (one at the end of the manifold, one on the silencer).


Sanding took a few hours, but the end result was gleaming steel, ready for a few coats of paint. After one 400ml can, I decided it was enough. According to the instructions, you must heat up the paint for it to be baked solid. Normally, one would do this by starting the engine and let things take care of themselves. However, my exhausts wen't connected to the engine anymore.
For that reason I had borrowed a heat gun. Unfortunately, the heat gun didn't warm things up enough, so I had to put the pipes back onto the engine and start it up. During the process, I did make some scratches; they'll have to be resprayed later.


My next bike will have stainless steel exhaust manifolds! It turns purplish blue when used, but at least it doesn't rust.