For the first time since 1978, I am wrong about something. I apologize to Piper and others for arguing. I thought my header pipes were stainless steel, because I used stainless jeweler's rouge to polish them on about 5 different occasions. A strong magnet was faintly attracted to them, so I thought it was the carbon steel inner pipe that was pulling the magnet.
This spring, I got stuck behind a dump truck in the rain for about 20 miles. When I finally passed it, I saw a "KCL" sticker on the side - potassium choride, the most corrosive of all salts. I washed the bike several times afterwards, but still had a few rusty specks show up on handlebars, foot controls, headers and my front brake reservoir cover from Brent is ruined.
I polished my header pipes again yesterday to get the discoloration out, I stayed on the buffer a bit too long. Then I noticed a goldish tint appearing - the chrome layer is thin, no, it's gone.
Sorry for my errant ramblings about my stainless steel headers.
Question: Should I rechrome them or powdercoat black?
