It is especially fulfilling to meet people through this blog, and one of those joys has been to meet my fellow Bonneville rider, Jorge. We met at the Full Moon Restaurant little over a year ago and have been on several events or rides together since then, including The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. This Spring, Jorge contacted me about the idea of wrapping his headers based on the header heat wrap ideas and experiences I’ve posted on this site in the past.
This past weekend, Jorge came over to Randy’s Garage and we successfully performed a header heat wrap conversion on his beautiful blue/white two tone Bonneville SE. Jorge wanted to try something a bit more unconventional and use natural color fiberglass heat wrap (sort of a cream color) by DEI, then spray it with white DEI silicone spray. Here are the results, which I think look quite nice!
Of course we had to first remove the mufflers and several other brackets to remove the headers from the Bonneville.
Mufflers and headers removed.
We needed to remove the right side cover and front sprocket cover to get at the rear header mounting bolt.
We stored all the parts carefully on side tables and shelves.
Jorge doing the heat gun thing to speed up the drying process.
A man looking pleased about his work!
Jorge’s finished T-100 in front, with my Thruxton behind and Lee’s SE in the back.
2012 Thruxton on the left and Jorge’s SE on the right… idling on its center stand to burn off the moisture and remaining silicone spray.
Jorge taking photos of his completed project.
I was able to take the completed SE for a quick spin around the block…. always puts a smile on my face!
The final outcome is a good looking Bonneville SE!
November 2015 Update
Here are couple more photos of Jorge’s wrap project… Thanks, Jorge!
Down on the farm – road trip?
Chicago Street Night Shot
Looks great folks, but I was told wrapping may cause the pipes to get too hot, to the extent warping might ensue? This certainly happened to an MGB GT wrapped steel header, might it also trap moisture to help corrosion? Would Jet Hot coating be a better option? Mike Doust
Mike,
There seems to be no end of opinions on this topic! Go over and do a search on TriumphRAT.net and you’ll see what I mean. I think the main reason to do this is purely personal preference and what one wants the bike to look like. So far on my Bonneville I have not noticed any changes in performance, moisture build up or warping to date. Maybe it takes longer or maybe it depends on other factors like how often one rides, how often the wrap gets wet, etc.
And if color was the only issue, I think your suggestion of an appropriate coating would be an option, or to just purchase ceramic coated headers. I think a lot a folks use the wrap because of just the way it looks… more race like, more aggressive, more raw.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your comments and ideas!
Randy
Hey Randy,
Thanks for helping wrap the exhausts. It was fun to work on the bike and your help and knowledge made it better. Plus the breakfast diner was awesome and hit the spot.
I wanted to wrap them mainly because the blue-ing did not turn out as nice as others over time. It really wasn’t blue, but more of gray (in my opinion). Besides, having lasted 11k miles so far, I figure by the time any deterioration does occur, it would be a good opportunity to upgrade to lighter pipes.
I chose white to tie in with the tank color. I’ve seen some online pictures of other bikes with white.dirty exhaust after use and I hope that these will age nicely.
Jorge,
Thanks for the comment and additional details on your design approach and philosophy. I do hope that the wrap looks great over time. At the very least you are closer to now being considered a hooligan with that bad ass pipe wrap! I’m looking forward to some good rides this year… see you soon!
Randy
Still on the subject of exhausts, sorry to be a pain. I have used with great success a spray paint called ‘Plasti-dip’ first made in the US ( I think it is now available in Australia under another name and company). In the YouTube world you will see a lot of neat uses for this which are appealing as you can strip this pain off again and go back to original. People have been known to spray their exhaust tips with satin black Plasti-Dip, and it has stood up to the heat, I am wondering if the same Plasti-Dip would stand up to the heat of the Triumphs’ exhaust muffler (Not the pipe!)? Shall I experiment, and report back? Worst comes to the worst, I can strip off!! (The paint, the paint!)
Mike,
Thanks for the comment. I have experimented with Plasti-Dip as well and not had great luck with it. To me it seems to peel off too easily, especially if rubbed. I may not have applied it correctly or maybe applied enough coats. I was also not aware that people have used it successfully on hot header pipes! My guess is that if that is the case, it should work fine on the slip-on mufflers as they do not get as hot as the headers. My one big worry would be that it peels off too easily and then just looks bad.
Hey… if you want to give it a try and report back, that would be great! Good luck… I hope it works!
Randy
Thanks again Randy for your prompt comment. Indeed I must have the trick with plasti-dip. The wheels on my Hyundai Tiburon, have been Plasti-dipper for almost 2 years now, through washes grit all sorts, still has not peeled and the front grill on the same car also no peeling. I guess my greatest reason for using plasti-dip is that I could peel it off to go back to standard. I thought your black spoked rims looked good but then again?? Plasti-dip?