Alright so today I spent a bunch of time grinding down the welds on my ic pipe and then used a cup brush to smooth it out as best I could. So now that I've done this what else could I do to completely smooth it out? Since the pipe doesn't see any type of heat would it be alright to use a light coat of filler to smooth it out? I was also thinking maybe 2-3 coats of a self etching primer before a few coats of paint. Thanks in advance H-T

 

Any suggestions?

 

yeah filler will work. aluminum is tricky though if thats what your working with, not sure if they make filler that is specific for aluminum, regular stuff works but its a little tricky.

 

It's just a stainless charge pipe. I planned on painting it black and I know how bad that shows imperfections.

 

You could use plastic filler. Just sand the whole thing good so you get some bite and fill what you need to fill, block it smooth and prime.

 

you should fill in the undercut with more weld, then grind smooth and blend in with a mounted flap wheel, and dont paint it...polish it...painting takes away the anti corrosive capabilities of stainless....to bad we dont know eachother...id love to build that

 

Where I grinded down the welds was fine. It was the area 2" before and after it from where the grinder was hitting. I spent a few hours on it last night and it's almost finished now. I did one coat of bondo and one of icing and hand sanded it all from 220-400. I have a few pin holes that I will fill in tonight and it should be good to go.

 

filler will work just fine.

i used filler on a valve cover a long while back and its still mint.

 

Well it's not perfect but it's 100% better then what it was before. Finished up with the filler tonight and then sanded it down. 3 coats of high build primer and wet sanded the last 1 and hit it up with some alumi blast. Not bad for 2 evenings in the basement and about $20.
Don't mind the 1st pic it's from when I was boosting the car like a year ago.
Started out looking like this...


Ended up like this...

 

Yep looks good.....though I saw the first one and thought that was the finished product ^_^

That was MIG weld?

 

Yeah I had a friend do it for me since I can't weld.