What do you guys use to clean your exhaust tips? I'd like to remove the soot and restore the original shine. Thanks in advance!

 

#00 Wire wool - Clean Your Car

and metal polish

 

I never let my quad exhaust tips get very dirty, so they clean up quick and easy with a little Windex on some paper towels. I fold a paper towel several times lengthwise so I can slip it in between the 2 tips, grab each end, and pull back and forth to clean where my hands can't reach. No scratches or streaks, mirror shine clean, and don't have to worry about washing a dirty rag.
.

 

Wash like the rest of the car on the outside with never dull or simichrome polishing a few times a year.

I also wash the inside of the exhaust pipe with a wheel brush that has been shaked of soapy water. I scrub as far into the exhaust as the brush will go. Still looks like a new exhaust pipe!

 

This is what most Corvette owners use
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...e-29-99-a.html

After detail with exhaust cleaning kit


Tom

BTW this is how bad my exhaust tips would get after a 2 day HSDE at Road America

 

I was fixing a few scratches on the bodywork where someone scraped me in a car park. I used 2000 grit before buffing out the scratches and other chips and marks.
I had an annoying mark on the pillar trim between the doors on my 2011 xj where I touched it by accident when bleeding the brakes, this burnt a hand

The finished pipe compared to the sooty one below


Scratches buffed out and pipes looking like new

print into the pillar with the brake fluid. I wondered if wet sanding the area and polishing would resolve the issue...It did! I had to buff the rest of them as that one was now better.
For years the carbon deposits on the exhaust tips had annoyed me so I thought I would try the same thing and wet sand it with very worn 2000 grit sandpaper. I went quite hard at it to start with but got gentler as I got closer to the chrome. I also gave the hard water marks a gentle rub and hey presto! The tips virtually look like new. They could use a bit of metal polish to restore the chrome shine but they look fantastic. I would not be surprised if a bit of wax would polish them up like new.

 

Having purchased the car with 6000 miles on it the exhaust tips were pretty clean. So all I do is wipe them after each outing and they managed to stay pretty clean. There are also some irregular finishes in the inside but so far they look good at 24,000 miles.

 

I read somewhere that carburetor cleaner works well, though I've never tried it.

 

I've got those Borla intercooled tips and use one the free toothbrushes my dentist gives me every time I go in to clean the fins and inner tube, that and a squirt of purple cleaner. A dab of semi-chrome on the outsides and I'm good to go. Actually, come to think of it, they're a pain but they look nice!

 

Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish has always worked for me. $5 for a little tub and lasts forever. I'm finally getting to the bottom of mine after about 15 years and I use it on a lot more than pipes.