Want to restore the shine to your coked up exhaust tips?
This guide will tell you exactly how to do it and what products I used to get results like these.
Exhaust tips should be one thing in my eyes, bright chrome.
Yet the vast majority of S5's out there are sporting coked up, dull black exhaust tips - a quick scroll through the AutoTrader listings will prove my point - and mine was one of the worst offenders.
This sacrilege of the iconic Audi S car quad tail pipes had to end. Fortunately, I'm a dab hand at restoring them, having had plenty of practice with my Rover 25, BMW E46 330d and E92 335i.
As you can see below, my S5's pipes were in a bad way, probably untouched since they left the factory in Germany. In light of this, I went in with a full scale assault of products to help shift the years of coke and soot.
Products Required
- Metal Buffing Kit*
- Autosol*
- Valet Pro - Dragon's Breath*
- Steel Wire Wool
- Grade #00* for heavy dirt
- Grade #0000* for light dirt and restoring shine
- Microfibre Cloths*
Depending on the condition of your exhaust, you may only need to use Autosol and a microfibre to buff them back to mirror finish.
If your exhaust tips are as bad as mine were, or worse, here's my method on how to polish them back to show room condition.
I started off with the Valet Pro Dragon's Breath, which is an iron fallout cleaner usually used on your wheels (which works great by the way). I sprayed it on liberally and let it linger for a few minutes, hoping it would loosen some of the more stubborn grime spots prior to buffing. After 4 or 5 minutes I rinsed it off thoroughly with a hose and dried the area with a microfibre.
Using the steel wool, lubricated with Autosol I set to work cleaning the outer surface of each pipe. #00 grade steel wool leaves a dull finish as it's relatively coarse. You could use #0000 to get a shinier finish, but as my pipes were so dirty I went with #00. I'd recommend using #0000 if you're new to detailing.
Even after the first pass with the steel wool the tip was looking a great deal better. Once I'd got both tips' outer surface to the same level I moved to the inner surface. For that I used one of the 20mm cylindrical felt bits loaded with the Pro-Max brown polishing compound from the buffing kit.
To increase the shine I loaded a microfibre with some Autosol and buffed in an almost flossing manner.
Stepping back once I'd finished the driver's side it was clear that the difference side to side was stark (not the 'winter is coming' Stark).
All that remained was to get the passenger side to the same standard.
Once both sides were done I gave them a final flossing and stood back to admire the quad tips in all their glory.
The whole process took around an hour and a half, but that time was absolutely worth it in my eyes. It may be subtle but to me it's completely transformed the look of the rear of the car.
Got any hints, tips or recommended products? Let me know in the comments below!
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