What are Concours exhaust pipe standards?

[sam dupont]

Does an exhaust system that was painted by the factory have to be painted for the car to be among the best examples? Do people have to swap out exhausts if they want to drive their show car?

 

[gtx6970]

Only part of exhaust that's painted is manifolds

 

[sam dupont]

Only part of exhaust that's painted is manifolds

I've seen only two cars that had painted exhaust, Mopar HP being one, but I never paid much attention to car pipes. Most cars I owned were well used. Do Mopar manifolds with nice paint sell for a premium?

 

[AR67GTX]

I know some C2 Corvettes exhaust systems were give a rather crude paint finish by an assembly line worker with a paint mitt. It was not 100% coverage or pretty by any stretch and mufflers were hit with a black out paint gun where they might be seen from a low angle. So it might be possible that Chrysler did something similar. I’ve read it was not uncommon for manufacturers to put something on them so they would stay clean and not start rusting until they left the dealer lot. I believe in most cases manifolds just got an incomplete overspray coating from when the mostly assembled long block was painted on the engine assembly line.

 

[69hemibeep]

Shouldn't be any paint on the exhaust system just engine paint on the manifolds.

 

[sam dupont]

I know some C2 Corvettes exhaust systems were give a rather crude paint finish by an assembly line worker with a paint mitt. It was not 100% coverage or pretty by any stretch and mufflers were hit with a black out paint gun where they might be seen from a low angle. So it might be possible that Chrysler did something similar. I’ve read it was not uncommon for manufacturers to put something on them so they would stay clean and not start rusting until they left the dealer lot. I believe in most cases manifolds just got an incomplete overspray coating from when the mostly assembled long block was painted on the engine assembly line.

So a proper restoration would have the mit treatment on a C2. Since it was done on the line, I assume NOS parts would not have paint.

I think some manufacturers used a zinc like finish. My Charger didn't see much winter driving so the pipes are pretty bright.

 

[gtx6970]

I've seen only two cars that had painted exhaust, Mopar HP being one, but I never paid much attention to car pipes. Most cars I owned were well used. Do Mopar manifolds with nice paint sell for a premium?

It takes a lot more than just painted exhaust manifolds to sell for top dollar.
But its a start in the right direction

 

[AR67GTX]

So a proper restoration would have the mit treatment on a C2. Since it was done on the line, I assume NOS parts would not have paint.

I think some manufacturers used a zinc like finish. My Charger didn't see much winter driving so the pipes are pretty bright.

Sam, are you speaking of replacement pipes on your Charger. Some decades ago most of the replacement pipes started being bent out of aluminized (coated) pipes which greatly extends the outward appearance. Actually, if you keep your car out of wet weather or storage they will retain a new appearance for decades. These pipes were aluminized when I put them on about 1996 and this was them last year when I pulled them off.

The next photo is my 20+ year old aluminized TTI exhaust on my GTX last year.

I’m not sure when aluminizing gained widespread use, maybe the 70s. I think it was used for some premium mufflers before then and then adapted to pipes. Most OEM have switched to SS over the last few decades.

 

[Some Car Guy]

Just cut the old pipes off my car since they were undersized and I was doing some new mufflers etc anyway. I’d guess this car was done 20 years ago and they looked new. Somebody came by the shop and wanted the old mufflers because they looked new, except they were rotted from the inside and even blew out a slit in one.