Note: Stainless Means Stain-Less, Not Stainproof
 

I rotated my tires today, cleaned the wheels, glossed the sidewalls and all that sort of stuff. While I had my ride on jacks, I thought I'd better crawl underneath and check my 4-month old stainless steel Tenzo R exhaust. Good thing I did. It had some stains, corrosion and rust spots already. A thorough wipe-down with a damp rag, followed by some Brasso and an application of WD-40 brought it back to its original appearance.

I'm sure everyone knows this, but in case you don't, stainless steel is the generic name for a number of different steels used primarily for corrosion resistance. The one key element they all share is a certain minimum percentage [by mass] of chromium, usually around 10%. Although other elements, particularly nickel and molybdenum are added to improve corrosion resistance, chromium is always the deciding factor.

Only metals such as gold and platinum are found in nature, in pure form. All other 'normal' metals exist in nature combined with other elements. Rust and corrosion is, therefore, a natural phenomena, as nature seeks to combine together elements which man has produced in a pure form for his own use.

Originally, stainless steel was called 'rustless steel'. 'Corrosion resisting' steel would be really the better term, as ordinary stainless steels do suffer from corrosion and rust in the long term in hostile environments.

While mirror-finished stainless steel exhaust systems look great, remember; they DO stain, corrode and rust. If you want to keep them looking nice, they'll need a little attention every once in a while. Brasso and WD-40 is what I use. How about you???

Re: Note: Stainless Means Stain-Less, Not Stainproof
 

My Greddy has looked nasty from day one, I figured why fight it, let it rust out, it was my fault for spending that kind of money on an exaust. I try to geep the muffler clean that is about it, as for the piping lost cause. I will go with your standard custom piping and a flowmaster muffler next go.

I dont do anything to mine...Let it sit on my car and collect dirt.. you can hardly see it anyway...

WoW! You guys are making me feel like a tweak. The biggest reason I bought my pipe was for the looks. I wonder if I'm the only idiot that shines his muff?!?!?!

I still polish the muffler, a little. The muff is your only mod so you cherish it, like the 16 year olds you hook up with on the weekends :)

I had to have my exaust cut and welded to fit around the sway bar so I dont give a shit about it anymore.

I used to polish my can, but then I said hell it's not a show car and painted it black. Now I don't have to worry about it cause I'm running the JUN TI can. Ahhh... the simplicity of TI.

When I had my EX I used MOTHER's Chrome Polish. Man that stuf is amazing! It helped to keep it clean too (it had a sort of "wax" in it for lack of a better term).

But they definitely require work to keep shiny.