noirenex

TL;DR; - Pics below!

Hi all,

As the good sir 'imc27' mentioned my tailpipe was a bit mucky, I decided to go about cleaning them up a bit!

Thought I'd post a how to on tar removal from tailpipes, this one requires patience and some elbow grease, and a few odd socks, but after you're done you're pipes will be just like new!

I used:

Petrol
Spray bottle
WD40
4 x odd socks (Or some cotton cloths )
2500 grit sandpaper
Sponge pads
Meguires All Metal Polish
Gloves
Face mask respirator (Petrol will give you a headache)
Goggles (Petrol or tar in the eyes will be very unpleasant for you)

Righto, first of all, let's talk about the petrol. Petrol is very good at dissolving and cleaning various gunky messy crap you pick up from the road, it will evaporate quickly, and work very quickly on the tar, but you'll need to keep applying it since it evaporates so quick, also, petrol is nasty, more so than people give it credit for, so take appropriate precautions, wear a face mask, gloves and goggles!

Petrol is flammable. Please don't set yourself on fire, wait until the tailpipes are cool, and don't go driving for an hour or so after doing it , just to be safe

Process:
- Put your gloves, mask and goggles on
- Spray some WD40 all on the top of the tailpipes and let it sit for a few minutes
- Work the WD40 around to get it all over the tar and muck

Meanwhile

- Put something down on the ground (Sponge pad) to stop petrol getting everywhere
- Soak the center of a sock in petrol
- Pull the sock over the top of the tailpipe and hold it at both ends, pressing the petrol soaked center into the WD40 soaked mucky tar
- To remove the easy bits, pull the sock left and right quickly across the top of the pipe, like shining a shoe, move forward and backward to
- After about 15 seconds or so the petrol will become ineffective, so remove sock, add more petrol, and repeat, you'll find you might need to decrease the speed of the rubbing to let the petrol soak. Periodically (every 4 or 5 petrol soaks) re-apply some WD40 to the area
- When the sock is wrecked or so full of gunk it's leaving a brown mess everywhere, change to a new sock.

The most important thing to remember is that the petrol only remains effective for 15 seconds or so, after that you won't remove much tar just by rubbing alone.

Don't neglect the bottom either. When all the tar is gone you'll have a couple of spots that are stubborn, apply some petrol to the sock and rub the area firmly and they will eventually shift.

Now, the inner tip/chrome edge, they'll most likely be all black or patchy from carbon deposits from exhaust gasses, you may shift some with the petrol sock combo, but I needed some 2500 grit for this. Pop a little petrol in your spray bottle, and get about a 2" x 2" bit of the sandpaper, spray some petrol onto the area, just a little bit, and then rub with the sandpaper. I also used this technique to remove a few bits of discolouration around the pipe.

Once done the pipes will be looking pretty good, but not fantastic. This is where the very nice Meguires All Metal Polish coems in (Any metal polish will do I just like this one), get a fresh odd sock, and apply some polish and rub it over the area, ensure you get a good covering so it's like a dull haze. Leave for a minute or so, then get another fresh odd sock, and shine that pipe like a shoe. Don't forget the rim!

All done , pics below!

The original picture while I was fixing a scratch/scuff:


Onwards, to victory!

Fatbloke

Coca cola

noirenex

Ah yes, another option, I used to know some folks who swore by the stuff, would clean their engine bays with it too, I find it's a harder to work with though, and I've never really had that much luck with it considering so many folks say it's fantastic, it's slightly acidic which is why it works but the sugar content is more awkward to clean up IMO

Also: another tip, if you want an even better finish you might want to go over with some damp 3000 grit to smooth out any scratches before polishing, then polish like your life depends on it to get that final shiny finish. I never bothered since it will only get mucky again to make it not worth the effort for a final polish, but if you're going to show the car then might be worth doing?

tjockhult

Autosol will do it in one go. Have been using it since about 1972...

jsh

Two things .

Its far easier if you remove the tailpipes first ! Only requires undoing one bolt on each tail pipe !

And no ! Mine have not rusted

Its far easier not to let them get in this state in the first place

noirenex

Possibly, though these had never been cleaned, even the first close up image you can see was after I began, since I realized I should take pics after I got the worst of it off. I've tried autosol before, it's a regular in my ammo box, and it's a fantastic polishing/finishing if you just have spotting, but when you have actual build up of tar and stones, grit and other crap, it wouldn't be the first thing out my box

I must admit I never looked to see how simple it was to remove them to clean, I figured having them attached would give me easier leverage so I never bothered! Plus I'm used to rolling about on the floor under cars

Totally agree, the people who had the car before me though never did much outside of the servicing and mechanical upkeep, whereas I'm a bit more picky....

GreenmanS2000

I've always used Auto Glum tar remover then a bit of auto sol.

gets a lovely shiney finish

noodels

Me too

Daytona-Dave

+2 easy peasy 2min job people seem to want to make an easy job hard these days

prince buster

Autosol on very fine wire wool if its well on there.