Rusty Muffler - Can It Be Painted?
 

This muffler/exhaust part has become a little discolored, rusty, and unsightly. You can't see a lot of it from the road, but it is noticeable enough to take away from the looks of the car.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...5&d=1220296056

What are my options?

Can I paint it?

I am not aware of any silver paint that might hold up to the heat this part receives. Painting it black is an option, considering the car is Brilliant Black and there are a lot of good heat tolerant black paints on the market designed for BBQ grills.

And I am assuming that simply polishing it up with a good aluminum or metal cleaner would probably be a waste of time. Or would it?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

You can get some high temp paint for engines to paint them. but to paint it u have to get rid of the rust first, which is pretty time consuming.

you might want to consider buying a new stainless steel exhaust. say, Mazdaspeed one. saves u couple of lbs + better flow + better sound = orgasm :lol:

I'd go with your first option of painting it with some heat tolerant paint. BBQ grille paint may be your only option for that, however, I would check the heat levels for the caliper paint. You will be able to get a silver in that type of paint. Unfortunately this is not a permanent fix because it will eventually wear off. My dad used to use bbq paint on his exhaust for his VW Karmann Ghia. It would need to be re-applied every few months or so.

If all else fails--time for some aftermarket exhaust! :)

i hope you meant orgasm :mdrmed:

organism.....??? LOL

I sanded mine with a red scuff pad and refinished it it BBQ Hi heat paint.

Black or Silver? "Galvanized"?

And if Silver or a galvanized color.....where did you get it?

blah, Auto correction can sometimes be .... confusing :lol: lol

organism :rollingla

think I just found my new sig

it rusted already?
have you tried a metal polish?

Have not tried a metal polish, and there is only slight rust on it, it is not a heavy rust.

I'm wondering if a metal polish is even worth attempting.

I would give it a shot. Try using some English Custom Polish on there

BTW - it is not rust because we have a stainless muffler . Just discolouration from the heat , so it will come back again if you try to polish it out .....

Depending on how bad it really is(hard to see in the pic) I always use steel wool to shiine my tips up on my stainless and my stock one when ihad it possible this could work but like i said depends on how bad it really is

steel wool is great if you want a billion tiny scratches on something.

DIE !!!!!!! :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:

[QUOTE=nycgps;2622214]DIE !!!!!!! :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:[/QUOTE

what's wrong - miss your daily organism ? :lol2:

[QUOTE=Brettus;2622223]lol !

I HATE YOU !!!!! :banghead:

no worries mate - I'll change my sig. again in a few weeks - haha

+1 on the BBQ paint. BBQ paint VS fire... BBQ paint wins.

Black. Bought it from ACE Hardwear. They also had your color.

you can get some stuff called "rust destroyer", it's a primer you just paint over rust and it stops the rust from spreading, I don't know if they make a hi temp product or not though.

As an FYI, I've had good results with Eastwood's high temp paint on exhaust manifolds and non-stainless exhaust pipes.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...emType=PRODUCT

Try this DEI high temp silicone paint for exhaust... can be found at any auto parts store. 1500 degree protection. It runs around 7-8 bucks a can...


http://www.hrpworld.com/client_image...67_hdr_2_l.jpg

The After:

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...0&d=1220772163

All nice and shiny. You can see the reflection from the red boxing glove.
Thanks for the heads up that the part is stainless steel.

I went to Pep Boys and picked up two products. I bought Nevr Dull based on positive feedback from this board, but did not use it on the muffler as I thought I would end up using all the product just to clean this one part, but I'm going to save it for other cleanups.

The selection of paste products (preference) that specifically stated they were safe for Stainless was limited but there was a "Blue Magic Metal Polish Cream" that said it was safe for Stainless. It worked very well, easy to use, did not require a lot of heavy rubbing.

Once again, this board and you folks have shown to be of great help. Thanks.
Additionally, I am beginning to be more and more impressed with some of the bells and whistles on the RX8. Sometimes we knock it for lacking some feature or having some fault. But last week I learned there is a cabin filter that can easily be replaced, and this week I learn there is a stainless steel muffler. This is in addition to many other features I have "discovered" recently reading this board. Maybe these are standard features on newer and nicer cars, I dunno, but they weren't standard on the other cars we own or have owned.