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Post by hippo008 on Jun 15, 2022 22:12:53 GMT -5
 This is an OG JDM Honda pipe. There's very limited information on them online. I'm not even sure I have the name right and I haven't even seen a model name yet. The sticker on the exhaust says Red Mole however I've heard the pipes referred to as Red Mall or just Red pipes. It seems like Red Mall specialized in the small displacement exhaust market in Japan sometime in the late 90s. I've seen models for 50cc motorcycles, Suzuki scooters and Yamaha scooters as well. I scored this pipe dirt cheap on Yahoo Auctions Japan. All in I paid about $250 shipped to my doorstep. For a price that low I wasn't too concerned with condition outside major problems like large cracks or missing parts. I got really lucky. There's very few problems with the pipe outside some surface rust, one of the silencer tubes is bad and a small dent. I'm no aluminum welder so for now I am replacing the tubes and later I will have the tubes repaired by a professional. The rust and dent I can take care of for sure. In terms of quality I am very surprised. The pipe is make of thick and heavy metal all over and the craftsmanship is excellent. Compared to a lot of modern performance pipes for Honda this is a very high quality pipe.  I started with a basic tear down. The pipe is in two halves, the main chamber and the silencer tree. They separate with a spring. I drilled out the rivets and removed the silencer tubes to clean out the packing and separate the steel inner structure.  Here you can see the wear to the silencer tube. Later this will he welded shut and smoothed but for now I'm replacing both tubes with a cheap alternative.  Lots of packing came out. I setup an electrolysis tank for the steel components. I'm letting it run at 12V 2A overnight on my battery charger.  |
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Post by wiscootsin on Jun 15, 2022 22:41:13 GMT -5
that will loo pretty cool. I've done yahoo auctions through proxe three times and it is always a bit of a risk knowing what condition things will arrive. This looks to be pretty decent. I wonder if it'll have unique performance or just look sweet and sound nice!
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Post by hippo008 on Jun 15, 2022 23:00:48 GMT -5
that will loo pretty cool. I've done yahoo auctions through proxe three times and it is always a bit of a risk knowing what condition things will arrive. This looks to be pretty decent. I wonder if it'll have unique performance or just look sweet and sound nice! I don't think this pipe will put out crazy power. It is a full wave pipe with a shorter tuned length, I think it will be better than a NCY pipe but worse than something like an Arrow or JISO gun exhaust. I bought this exhaust mostly because of what it is, it's a really rare and strange exhaust. I think it will perform just fine but look awesome on my AF28 Super Dio. |
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Post by aeroxbud on Jun 16, 2022 5:15:17 GMT -5
You won't see another on a scooter that's for sure.
It's a cool thing. 👌
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Post by Lucass2T on Jun 16, 2022 5:27:16 GMT -5
I really like these kind of finds! Especially performance parts from a different era of scooter tuning and modding! In the past found myself some rare and obscure parts too and I know how excited one can be about it!
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Post by hippo008 on Jun 16, 2022 21:34:24 GMT -5
This is the second tub of water and washing soda. It's been in this solution for about 5 hours and in electrolysis for about 30 hours. I'll take out the pipe tomorrow and take some photos.  |
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Post by jbjhillbilly on Jun 17, 2022 0:16:19 GMT -5
Wow! I’ve been dying to try that on some stuff, but I lost access to the chargers I would have used.
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Post by Lucass2T on Jun 17, 2022 2:52:40 GMT -5
This is the second tub of water and washing soda. It's been in this solution for about 5 hours and in electrolysis for about 30 hours. I'll take out the pipe tomorrow and take some photos. Seems to work super looking at all the crud thats coming off of it! |
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Post by hippo008 on Jun 17, 2022 5:29:47 GMT -5
Wow! I’ve been dying to try that on some stuff, but I lost access to the chargers I would have used. You don't need a battery charger for electrolysis. Any constant current DC power supply will work. A great alternative are power packs for old electronics or appliances. They are usually 12V and work really well. Just cut off the connection on the end and use some alligator clips to connect the power pack to your work piece. EDIT: I forgot to mention some modern battery chargers, often called "smart" chargers, wont work for electrolysis without some extra parts. They have circuitry that detect a load and will turn themselves off when they dont have a load. If you daisy chain an old battery between your smart charger and electrolysis tank it will work. |
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Post by hippo008 on Jun 17, 2022 17:38:49 GMT -5
I siphoned the water out of the tank to show you guys how much rust was left over. This was the second flush and lots of rust was in solution that got drained out. So more than double the amount of rust shown here was removed from this pipe and its silencer tree.  Nice  I wanted to try and clean out the pitting as much as possible. Electrolysis leaves behind this crusty black stuff that comes off easy with a soft brush or wire wheel but still needs to come off. I hit it with a soft wheel for 15 minutes and this was the result. Theres lots of pitting unfortunately, I may end up painting the body of the pipe black.  Id love to leave the natural look of it but I think the pitting looks awful. Any ideas? |
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Post by Lucass2T on Jun 18, 2022 7:13:50 GMT -5
It's really really difficult to make it look good without spraying it black. Keeping the raw metal and wiping it down with wd40 after every ride is really tedious. High temp clear coat will make it rust again after a short time. You can have it sand blasted and immediately after desgrease and cover it with high temp clear. But that finish doesn't look nice imo. Just a thin coat of high temp black is probably the best solution.
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Post by aeroxbud on Jun 18, 2022 9:13:04 GMT -5
It's a shame but if you give it a chrome finish. It will show the imperfections more.
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Post by jbjhillbilly on Jun 18, 2022 11:56:16 GMT -5
Maybe high temp black as a base to fill in some of the smaller imperfections, then a different high temp color on top? Have it stand out a bit.
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Post by jackrides on Jun 18, 2022 13:38:13 GMT -5
Hi temp comes in many colors. Anyway, would you give us a reference to your electro-wash chems and proceedures please? Looks supercool!
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Post by hippo008 on Jun 18, 2022 21:27:23 GMT -5
Maybe high temp black as a base to fill in some of the smaller imperfections, then a different high temp color on top? Have it stand out a bit. It's going on quarentine killer. It's black and a few shades of blue. I feel like black may look best? White could also be a weird but cool look. Vote for what color the pipe should be. Photos of the scooter for reference   |
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