Hey guys, sorry if this has been posted before, but I tried to search on google and on the forum and didn't find much.

I got a Turbo XS Exhaust, and it has some scratches and is dirty. A little discolored too, I don't mind the Y Pipe and Mid pipe looking a little discolored or dirty cause no one sees that. But I want the tips and canister to be clean.

My question is, I know with most exhausts in decent shape, you just use some polish and elbow grease to make it look nice and shiny. If you want to "polish" it, you wetsand it.

What if it has some scrapes/scratches/and is very dirty like below. How do you clean that? Can I use lower grit sandpaper? Does it have to still be wet sanding? Can I use something else besides sandpaper?

I also want to clean the inside of the tips, it's like carbon build up turned it black, would normal wetsanding with 1000 grit to 2000 grit followed by polishing make it look good? Would 1000 grit even take out some of the scratches seen below?


Sorry for the long thread, but please try to help me and don't flame me for not knowing what to do.
John


Here are the pictures.

 

Usually on a heavily "sooted" exhaust I hit it with a good cleaning with an all purpose cleaner (I like P21S) then any over the counter metal/aluminum polish will make it shine really nicely. As for some of those scratches, I don't think they will come out.

 

mother's metal polish.

put some on like a wax, buff clean off.

I used to use it when I detailed before.

Either that, or clean really well and use different grades of sandpaper and wet sand that bad boy back.

edit: the only way to get the scratches "out" is to even them out by wetsanding.

 

Yeah, sanding seems like my best bet on the tips, since the canister doesn't really have scratches, I'll just use a cleaner and polish it with some mother's or something.

What about the inside of the tips, would a cleaner like Simple Green for Stainless Steel work to wipe it down, then wetsand the scratches, then use some metal polish over all of it should do the trick?

 

An all purpose cleaner and the metal polish will work on the inside as well.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the help guys. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

 

I used steel wool to remove the discoloration around my exhaust tip.

 

Steel wool works really good, I usually use a 000 and then a 0000 then some good SS polish, this will do the trick...it will take a bunch of elbow grease, but it will be worth it! If ya have power tools, it makes life easier...but SS is reall hard to bring up to a great polish, even if you're a pro.

 

Yes, that is what I forgot to ask about. I wanted to know if that would work instead of wet sanding.

I'm guessing steel wool is measured by 0's? 0 being rougher than 0000 right?

I don't need this exhaust to be mirror, 100% polished, I just want to make it look nice because the way it looks now is a little...ehh...I will try getting 000 and just get it back in decent condition, then use Nevr Dull or Mothers or whatever polishing wax I can find. This looks like it's going to be a fun project......

 

I bet you could even use the green side of a kitchen sponge for inside the tip if you are concerned about the steel wool scuffing it all up.

If I were you I would try out some chemicals before resorting to sanding the outside because your going to have to go through a lot of steps to go from grungy to shiny. What about hitting it with goof off?




EDIT: use a metal polishing compound for the canister. Check out Kragen for that.

 

I've tried the sponge, doesn't work as well as a fine steel wool. It's harmless it wont scuff stainless steel unless you use a power tool.

 

Yeah, I read a bit more about the steel wool on the exhausts. Turns out 0000 is too fine to start removing the discoloration/nasty finish on the canister/tips. I'm going to try removing all the scratches, carbon build up, dirt with using some simple green and the scrotchpad heavy duty, then I will wipe it down and use the 0000 to smoothen it out, then I will wash it again, and finish off with some polishing wax.

I don't care too much about the Y Pipe and Mid cause even if I spend hours cleaning them, they will turn back after a few years of use. So I will put most of my time in the canister, specifically the tips.

I will keep you guys updated with before/after pictures, should be fun lol.

 

Alright, exhaust came in today. Was very dirty/dusty as I saw in the pictures lol. The first thing I did was clean it off with a wet rag to see what I was working with.

You can see the left side vs the right, it was pretty dusty/dirty, so a simple wet rag helped a lot.


Note all the carbon build up inside the tips, I must say Nevr Dull did "jack****" for that. It took me over a solid minute or rubbing Nevr Dull on the inside only to notice....it's not doing anything.




I had to whip out the scotch-brite pad and went to the town and that helped a lot! I tried getting all the discoloration/carbon build up off the inside of the tips.




Then I went back to the outside of the tips, and this is were Nevr Dull really shined, few rubs and that discoloration was gone and the shine was back. This is some great stuff.




Final Product.




I tried working on the rest of the muffler, but Nevr Dull didn't do much there and I wasn't about to scotch-brite the whole muffler and resand it or use steel wool piece by piece as that would take days. The Y Pipe and Midpipe also were harder than I thought to clean like the tips. Nevr Dull again didn't help "too" much, I tried some scotch brite to get off the really grimy parts, but again didn't want to have to resand/steel wool all the piping when I know next time it comes off, it's going to be dirty again.


From the back of the car, I think it will definitely look clean. Hopefully I'll get some mounted pictures soon.

 

wow, i'm impressed... those tips really looked like crap to start off with but it looks like you definitely put in a little elbow grease to make it awesome!

 

good job dude. Polishing takes a long time but its worth it in the end.