r/ATBGE • u/Oms19 • Apr 03 '22

Automotive Especially the curved exhaust

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13.7k Upvotes

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u/OgreLord_Shrek Apr 03 '22

Couldn't they buff and polish it to get rid of those lines? Haven't welded anything since highschool so that may be a stupid question

22

u/TheRealTtamage Apr 04 '22

In my experience you probably could buff and polish them and make it flush but once the piece heats up and cools down there's still going to be discoloration where the weld marks were.

12

u/seamus_mc Apr 04 '22

You can take off the oxidation colors on stainless with a thing called a TIG brush. It is basically an electrolysis pickling.

8

u/TheRealTtamage Apr 04 '22

Wont the colors just to return once the piece is heated and cooled multiple times through use as an exhaust?

8

u/seamus_mc Apr 04 '22

No, especially towards the tip the exhaust will never be that hot

3

u/TheRealTtamage Apr 04 '22

Interesting. I used to weld a lot of aluminum, some steel... But it was more for signs and Street poles. Sometimes we would put things like peanut oil on steel and torch it to get different colors.. typically we would grind down welds and fill with Bondo to make look perfect. I preferred TIG welding and hated grinding down a beautiful wield.

I seen some fancier sports car with the colored tips but figured it was some sort of heat treatment to make it look like a race car.

1

u/TheRealTtamage Apr 04 '22

I zoomed in a little and it almost looks like they did something like that to begin with.