Tim said:
You mean clean the innards out? Mayfair is not likely going to dip used pipes in their tanks for the purpose of cleaning out carbon build-up. Most places won't re-chrome used pipes because of this.
Media blasting might be an option.
I've had a chrome shop here do it. Now i knew them, so maybe that helped or maybe they have a tank just for dingy, grimey parts before going into their regular cleaning tank or maybe i got them just when they were going to clean their tank out. Either way I asked and they did it. Now that being said, over the years i have known other two stroke riders to have had their used pipes chromed or ceramic coated. They unbolt the pipe from the motor, wipe the outside off with a rag, drop it off/ mail it in and finally receive freshly coated pipe(s).
You're not gonna know unless you ask. And if it's no, then ask if it would be possible when they are going to change their tanks over. In a perfect world every part would be brand new before being coated, but it's not and so parts are covered in paint, dirt, grime, carbon, old chrome..... and yes i'm sure they glass bead some of those parts before they go in the strip tank.
As for the caustic, about 4 years ago,when i was still in the gta, we bought a huge lot of first generation hemi's two of which are in my avatar pic (354 & 392) from stateside. They did not look anything like that when we had got them. They were sitting outside for 30+ years and the waterjackets just filled with rust, dirt, oil sludge and grime. I phoned around to other machine shops looking for someone who still used caustic in their hot tank as we did a lot of aluminum blocks and heads and the caustic is too harsh for aluminum. Nobody i talked to used it anymore as they too are rebuilding modern aluminum motors and because the cost of using it as it was regulated for environmental reasons. To run caustic in their tanks, they would have to also pay a company to remove the old solution everytime they wanted to refresh their solution in their hot wash tanks verses running a cheaper biodegradable bi-metal solutions that they can clean and dispose of themselves without worry of fines from the environmental police. Problem is the bi-metal solutions are not as strong as the caustic soda.
As for buying caustic and doing it yourself, I'm not sure anyone would sell to joe public in the GTA area, but once again, you don't know unless you ask!
Anyways, good luck!
oven cleaner, muriatic acid, high pressure power washer, buy new pipes
......
