Restoring Black Chrome Pipes?

Hey KZR,

So in my never-ending quest for information, learning and devouring as much tech tips as I can find to use myself going forward I realized I really don't know how to bring back the finish on these black chrome pipes on my GPz. I realize that without removing them and taking them to a place that can do a full strip and re-plate of the black chrome that it will never be "perfect" but I am sure that I can at least go through the effort myself of rubbing on them by hand to bring them back to nearly showroom quality again.

Currently this is about the best pic I have of the black chrome, I can and will take a closer better pic tonight when I am at the new house doing some yard work after normal work gets out. They are in really good shape already but they are still showing their age and patina, and for most they would leave it but I want this to look like it just rolled out of the showroom for me.

On normal chromies I have heard of using super fine steel wool, scotchbrite pads, and aluminum foil among other things to bring the finish back as well as some rubbing compounds, but something in the back of my head keeps saying that will probably ruin the finish on these ones :pinch:

So, what is the proper way to try to restore the finish on these black chrome pipes without removing the black tinting itself???

Thanks,
Brett

PS: Did a search via google as well as searching KZR but really didn't find much of anything, mostly talk about what black chrome is and how it is nearly impossible to find a place that does a true black chrome anymore since most of the shops have been closed due to higher and higher EPA restrictions.

I think you probably know the answer already, but black chrome, as you mentioned, has some serious EPA restrictions. It appears that a few companies are offering this process again, but none of them list exhaust systems as candidates for the process. This is similar to many chrome shops, who will not re-chrome used exhaust systems because the pollutants in the pipes contaminate the chroming baths. I think Caswell plating and Eastwood offer small kits for black chroming but it becomes cost prohibitive when considering entire exhaust systems. I'm going to end up with black exhausts, but not black chrome exhausts for my KZ750R1.

Keep in mind that the plating is literally only a few millionths of an inch thick, so using anything abrasive, such as very fine steel wool, Scotchbrite pads, etc. will very quickly wear through it to the underlying surface. The same is true of most stuff labeled "chrome polish." Because it is so extremely thin it is virtually impossible to restore the smooth chrome finish by polishing. Any defects are bound to be deeper than the thickness of the plating. Rust and other defects can sometimes be removed with very mild abrasives or disguised with aluminum foil, but the original chrome finish is ruined where ever the rust spots were found. That's not to say that the item may not look better after removing the rust spots; it very likely will; it just isn't going to look like new chrome. Best bet for undamaged bright chrome is Windex or similar products, and if there are defects replating is the only way to restore it to the original, smooth finish.

I suspect the same issues related to bright chrome are true for black chrome. Again, the plating is going to be terribly thin, so anything abrasive will quickly wear through it to the underlying surface. You may want to see if waxing it helps enhance the shine and deep black color. I have used wax on bright chrome pipes before, and it did not react in any way to the heat of the exhaust. Ed

My 2 cents:
Most likely you will never find a plating shop that will replate your pipes.
In my business, I have a lot of chrome plating done and of the three companies I use, none will touch used pipes. New? No problem.
So my suggestion is to check out ceramic coating instead... If you have the coin to pay for it rather then buying aftermarket pipes.

650ed wrote: Keep in mind that the plating is literally only a few millionths of an inch thick, so using anything abrasive, such as very fine steel wool, Scotchbrite pads, etc. will very quickly wear through it to the underlying surface. The same is true of most stuff labeled "chrome polish." Because it is so extremely thin it is virtually impossible to restore the smooth chrome finish by polishing. Any defects are bound to be deeper than the thickness of the plating. Rust and other defects can sometimes be removed with very mild abrasives or disguised with aluminum foil, but the original chrome finish is ruined where ever the rust spots were found. That's not to say that the item may not look better after removing the rust spots; it very likely will; it just isn't going to look like new chrome. Best bet for undamaged bright chrome is Windex or similar products, and if there are defects replating is the only way to restore it to the original, smooth finish.

I suspect the same issues related to bright chrome are true for black chrome. Again, the plating is going to be terribly thin, so anything abrasive will quickly wear through it to the underlying surface. You may want to see if waxing it helps enhance the shine and deep black color. I have used wax on bright chrome pipes before, and it did not react in any way to the heat of the exhaust. Ed

Hi Ed,

Good information thank you, and you're thinking along the same lines I was. I know how thin those platings are which is why I didn't want to use a lot of the normal techniques I am familiar with, especially with the fact that up close it visually reminds me a lot of an anodized plating which as you know is extremely thin! I like the idea of cleaning it up with Windex first and then rubbing some wax into it. Any suggestions on what type of wax to use? I have an old product from American Racing Wheels called Wheel Wax" that is meant to clean and seal polished metal surfaces with mag wheels. Here is some info on the product: www.summitracing.com/parts/are-9000903

I also have some access to Blue Magic metal polish, but I suspect that there would potentially be enough abrasive that it could wear through the thin plating. Here is a link to the info on the Blue Magic product too: www.amazon.com/BlueMagic-400-Metal-Polish-Cream/dp/B000BO8Z9I

Would you recommend the Wheel Wax, Blue Magic, or a different product altogether?

Thanks,
Brett

Hey Madrid and Missionkz,

Sorry for not making it a bit clearer, I know that I can't get them re-plated and truthfully I don't want to even if I could due to cost and the fact that these are already in very good shape, I just want to try to bring the shine and luster back as much as humanly possible. Apologies if I accidentally mislead y'all didn't mean to. Try to preserve the current plating and just clean it up and make it glow with as much luster as I can with the original plating. So basically was asking what to do to restore the finish and luster on the original finish as much as I can without ruining the stock finish. :side:

Brett

I had stock Black Chrome exhaust on a couple GPz's a long time ago....if I remember right, WD40 was the recommended treatment for making them look good.

PaintWorkz wrote: I had stock Black Chrome exhaust on a couple GPz's a long time ago....if I remember right, WD40 was the recommended treatment for making them look good.

Interesting, thanks PaintWorkz, I have boatloads of WD-40 so can easily give that a try. Guess if that doesn't bring back the luster as much as I would like I can always try the wax suggestion that Ed offered as well, seems like that would be a best of both worlds situation

Thank you,
Brett

I've cleaned up three different black chrome exhaust pipes and I can confirm the black coating is fragile. Rub too hard and the black will come off if you use something abrasive. Restoring the pipes is a balancing act of removing oxidation and grunge and not removing too much black coloring.

Best stuff I found is regular ol Turtle Wax chrome polish, rubbed by hand. There is some grit in the polish but it's pretty mild. You can rub pretty hard before the black starts to come off. Just scrub until you get the grunge and surface rust off and then stop. Don't try to remove all the deep pitting because you can't and the black will be gone long before you come to that realization.

Nessism wrote: I've cleaned up three different black chrome exhaust pipes and I can confirm the black coating is fragile. Rub too hard and the black will come off if you use something abrasive. Restoring the pipes is a balancing act of removing oxidation and grunge and not removing too much black coloring.

Best stuff I found is regular ol Turtle Wax chrome polish, rubbed by hand. There is some grit in the polish but it's pretty mild. You can rub pretty hard before the black starts to come off. Just scrub until you get the grunge and surface rust off and then stop. Don't try to remove all the deep pitting because you can't and the black will be gone long before you come to that realization.

Thanks a lot Ed, getting all of these different POV's and experience is giving me a lot of tools in my arsenal to try from for cleaning up these pipes. Can start simple and non-"destructive" with WD-40 and wax, but if it doesn't get the result I want then I can take it a bit further and by punishing my hands instead of my wallet try some chrome polish as well so long as I am careful and use my noggin to tell me when to stop instead of being a goof and rubbing straight through!

Thank you for your input and ideas!
Brett

I used the same wax as I used on the bike's paint. Ed

650ed wrote: I used the same wax as I used on the bike's paint. Ed

Thanks for clarifying Ed

Brett