BEFORE BEGINNING THE RESTORATION When I acquired Project 40, a 1986 VFR700F, the seller included a grungy old Kerker dual-muffler slip-on with his large stash of "excess" parts. When it came time to decide which exhaust to use on this project, I pulled the Kerker off the shelf for an examination. Under the layers of rust and dirt I found good bones — no dents and just superficial scuffs. This will do nicely.
This particular Kerker has muffler pipes which are grafted onto the stock VFR header collectors, an unusual approach which saved the manufacturer lots of design work while assuring the end user a system that fits correctly.
(Below) After a thorough degreasing/cleaning I begin this process with the aluminum mufflers. The more severe rash is gently ground smooth with the help of a die grinder with medium scuff pad in place, followed by lots of hand sanding using progressive grades of grit. In the middle photo corrosive pock marks are visible, and I want these gone...more sanding. I finish with an 800-grit and, in this case, a gray painters' scuff pad to give the finish a brushed look. During the muffler work I'll need to handle the black steel pipes so I wait till I'm finished with the mufflers before the high-heat paint is applied. The pipes could also be powder or ceramic coated, but here I chose spray paint because I like the original look it provides. The flat black will be rubbed out in a few days to give it a nice factory sheen.
(click on an image to enlarge)
This particular Kerker has muffler pipes which are grafted onto the stock VFR header collectors, an unusual approach which saved the manufacturer lots of design work while assuring the end user a system that fits correctly.
(Below) After a thorough degreasing/cleaning I begin this process with the aluminum mufflers. The more severe rash is gently ground smooth with the help of a die grinder with medium scuff pad in place, followed by lots of hand sanding using progressive grades of grit. In the middle photo corrosive pock marks are visible, and I want these gone...more sanding. I finish with an 800-grit and, in this case, a gray painters' scuff pad to give the finish a brushed look. During the muffler work I'll need to handle the black steel pipes so I wait till I'm finished with the mufflers before the high-heat paint is applied. The pipes could also be powder or ceramic coated, but here I chose spray paint because I like the original look it provides. The flat black will be rubbed out in a few days to give it a nice factory sheen.
(click on an image to enlarge)
(Below) Next, the end caps need lots of attention. These caps are directly subjected to corrosive exhaust gasses, so I begin with aggressive sanding, even resorting to an orbital sander on the edges. I'm left with clean aluminum, but those sanding marks won't do.
(Below) More hand sanding, again finishing with a gray scuff pad. For the caps I'd like a bit more shine, so a single pass with aluminum polish does the trick. That black residue on the cloth is aluminum — polishing aluminum requires lots of cloth. The black recesses are finished with high-heat paint applied with an artist's brush, this took three coats; any excess wiped clean with solvent. Can't forget the muffler clamps.
(Below) Finally, I'll need to repack the baffles, using a fiberglass muffler packing material sourced from eBay. After marking the required length, just cut with a scissors and wrap around the core.
(Below) Here, I'm figuring how much of the packing will fit inside the housing, which I mark, then cut the excess. The packing doesn't require securing except maybe when fitting it into the muffler housing, You'll often see thin wire used for this but masking tape works fine also. Finally, I fit the end caps with nicely polished button screws.
RSS Feed