Exhaust Rust?

[venomous]

Ok, I know I am going to sound like a obsessed clean freak but there is just one thing that bothers me about my car. My whole under side is basically spotless except for where my off road h-pipe connects to the cat-back. The flanges or connectors are a little rusted but there is no way for me to take them off and I was wanting to get the rust off. What do I do to get it off? Sorry for sounding like a nerd ahead of time.

[cowboyharry]

? wire brush ? glass bead or sand blast ? mabie the Eastwood company has a product you could paint over it ?

[venomous]

Thanks man, will have to try one.

[ausie]

I have had a slight rusting of my exhaust pipes due to driving the car in the winter where they put tons of salt on the roads. I also have a Ford explorer with the three spoke chrome/steel wheels along with steel/chrome bumpers. Now to the point, flash rust or spotted rust on stainless steel or chrome plated steel can be cleaned with chrome wheel cleaner (the best I ever used was the mother's chrome wire cleaner spray). The chrome cleaner has acids in it that will remove rust. just spray it on and wash it off . I used chrome cleaner to remove some of the flash rust off of the exhaust pipes on my cobra which worked rather well. Perhaps that may work in your case, however, it the rusty parts of the exhaust that you described is mild steel, it may make it worse. Do not use the chemical chrome cleaner on the molybendium headers since it is mainly composed of iron. Also do not get the chrome cleaner on painted surfaces as it will damage paint. Also avoid getting onto aluminum as it will etch and dull aluminum.

[venomous]

Thanks Ausie, that might do the trick. I will probably wind up taking it off and brushing it with a wire brush or something of the sort .

[ausie]

I was just creaping under my car to see what I can do about the exhaust since I am planning on replacing the rear or cat back portion of it. I did notice that my pipes are of the reddish color, but not rusty. Some of the clamps are a bit rusty though. I do my best not to drive it in the winter (even when the street is clear of snow, there is alot of salt on the roads which will increase corrosion). That reminds me, I need to lube the bushings with silicon spray to quiet them up a bit since I also power washed the underside of the car with the pressure washer. It only creaks after it gets wet. Makes me wonder if that will work. You would think that they would use chorme-molly steel on the exhaust connectors since they will not rust. Stainless would be too weak to bolt the parts together. Hmmm. I wonder if the paint used for calipers would work on the rusty exhaust parts, probably not since the temperatures in the exhaust pipe probably exceeds the temperature build up in the calipers.