I guess my first question should be, does anyone know what the material of the pipe is on a N1 catback exhaust system.
I think it's ceramic coated...
If it is, is it possible to weld on it?

 

I'm not sure what the coating is but chances are that you will pry have to grind it of to weld it.

 

just slightlly grind off the ceramic coat enough to make a nice bead. that way you can do a clean and strong weld. 98ctr

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boosted-delslow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm not sure what the coating is but chances are that you will pry have to grind it of to weld it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

you dont grind coatings off , you wire brush coatings off.

grinding digs into the metal too much and creates stress risers.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doctor CorteZ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

you dont grind coatings off , you wire brush coatings off.

grinding digs into the metal too much and creates stress risers.</TD></TR></TABLE>

true, but if you have a slight angle on the pipe you can get a verry nice and strong weld. as soon as you weld it the heat will melt right over the grinding part.

 

i would mask it off and sandblast it, then recoat it.

 

Not sure about cerarmic coated materials but be prepared for the coating to darken and/or bubble if you don't manage the heat while you're welding.

The guy that did my 240' iron gate screwed up the textured black powder coat with copper speckle w/ clear coat all over the place when he forgot to put brackets before sending it off for painting. Now I have a crappy touch-up job over all the welds (impossible to color match) and you can see it from within 15'. Cost me $12,000 for the gate so I'm pretty pissed, but he did brackets on the last few pieces which came out 100% better (since they didn't require touch-up). So beware of how you're going to re-coat the area too... does ceramic coating need the whole surface to be cleaned before coating or can they touch-up ceramic coating? If not you'll have the same problem as me with my gate.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Doctor CorteZ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

you dont grind coatings off , you wire brush coatings off.

grinding digs into the metal too much and creates stress risers.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've got to disagree with you. You'll never brush off galvanizing or chrome plating or things of that nature... even ceramic, depending on the type of ceramic.

With a LITTLE bit of skill, the amount of material removed isn't going to be an issue. As for the smoothness, you can just use a sanding disk.

 

You really need to sand it off all the way.It welds kinda cool (not heat wise)You can almost fuze it.If you drag weld it you just kinda run the rod right in front of the puddle and dab once in a while,so it won't bubble up on you.But if you want A nice looking bead ya have'ta sand it off.I use a red scotch brite twist-loc on a little air 90 deg. sander Thats allumanized tubing, But ceramic allum. You have to make sure you get every bit of that crap off.And its a bitch.Use a fine disc and roll it around the tube. Don't sand length wise or it will be different thickness's,and look like crap

 

I think cortez meant a wire brush wheel adapter for an angle grinder. That's what I use whenever I worked on 'coated' piping.