Author Topic: Help - rear exhaust chrome endpieces - dull  (Read 2645 times)

Offline martin998877

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Help - rear exhaust chrome endpieces - dull
« on: 13 September 2019, 20:18 »
Hi everyone

my two exhaust chrome endpieces are very dull.  Could anyone give me some ideas to shine them up please? 

I'm not a detailing expert and have nothing much other than a sponge and shampoo but I'm happy to buy what is needed. I look with amazement at what you guys do with paintwork and trim, and would appreciate any help you can give.

I'd like to get the outer exhaust parts shiny and chrome looking from the sides, and the 'big polo mint' circular shape you can see when looking from the rear, too if possible.  The inside is sooty so i don't think i can do much there!!

Any ideas would be really welcome, many thanks everyone.  I wondered about Brasso but don't want to do any damage!

Martin

2016 GTi in Iridium grey
Golf GTi Mark 7 owner

Offline SRGTD

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Re: Help - rear exhaust chrome endpieces - dull
« Reply #1 on: 13 September 2019, 23:23 »
By dull, I’m assuming they’re quite heavily caked in baked on spot deposits? (Edit; typo - not spot deposits, soot deposits! :grin:)

Firstly, give them a good wash with your usual car shampoo, then use a proprietary metal cleaner - something like Autosol Metal Polish. Apply the metal polish with a soft microfibre cloth and then buff off. If your exhaust tips are particularly bad, you might need to apply it 2 (or 3) times to remove all of the baked on sooty deposits.

If the metal cleaner doesn’t remove all the sooty deposits, gently use some very fine wire wool (suggest grade 0000 to avoid scratching), and then polish up with the metal cleaner. Once the tips are clean, you could apply a couple of coats of sealant which should help to reduce the amount of sooty build up in future. As the exhaust tips get hot during driving, you might need to re-apply the sealant more frequently than you would to the car’s bodywork to help maintain a protective layer to reduce future build up of sooty deposits.

You may find that once you’ve removed the dirt / sooty deposits, the chrome might have become pitted around the end of the tailpipe. If so, unfortunately, no amount of cleaning or polishing will remove the pitting, but regular cleaning of the exhaust tips (every time you clean your car, or if you don’t clean your car very often, every couple of weeks) should help to stop it getting any worse.



« Last Edit: 16 September 2019, 20:12 by SRGTD »
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Offline Dr Mike Oxgreen

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Re: Help - rear exhaust chrome endpieces - dull
« Reply #2 on: 16 September 2019, 18:52 »
I owned a Honda S2000, and being a facelift model it had two large oval exhaust tips, located in the firing line behind the rear wheels, so the chromed tips became caked with tar particles, which melted on the hot exhausts, then solidified when the pipes cooled.

The way to get rid of the baked-on tar was as follows:

You need some paper kitchen towels, a can of WD40, one plastic bag per exhaust tailpipe, and some rubber bands.

Make sure that the exhausts are cold.  Soak one or two kitchen towels with WD40, and wrap around the tailpipes

Cover each tailpipe with a plastic bag, and secure with the rubber bands.

Go and have a cup of tea, and wait for an hour or two.  Then, remove the plastic bags, and wipe the tailpipes clean with some fresh kitchen towels, and use petrol or another solvent to make sure that all traces of WD40 are removed.

Finish the job with Solvol Autosol or similar metal polish.

Thank me later.