I completely agree about carbs. I leave mine alone unless there's a definite problem. These ones haven't been on the bike yet, but they are looking good and will only be getting a good (second) cleaning before a test run. If you're a CBXer, then you know that a guy Mike Nixon wrote a CBX carb "Bible" and that's what we're using to get these up and going.
As for the exhaust, the stock pipes were really rusty and there's no place here I can get anything rechromed. They were in good shape otherwise though, so I sanded off the rust, then primered and painted them with VHT primer (the flameproof 2000º kine) followed by VHT Cast Iron 2000º paint. They came out looking sick! The cast iron is like a titanium-ish color and there's not much sign of all the rusty bits.
I called the makers of VHT paint and got directly from the horse's mouth that the way to cure this paint is to do both primer and top coats before you cure either one. In other words there's no need to cure the primer, then the top coat separately. I'll be curing them on the bike and from reading a bit, it looks like that if you add a couple steps to the recommended way, it works even better. The can says a 10 min heat cure with bike running, the cool, then 20 minute heat cure, the cool, then run for 30 min+. I've heard it'll work better if you do a 3 minute run, cool, then a 6 minute, cool, then as the can says...who knows but I'll try it.
Though I don't have high hopes for how this stuff will hold up over the long run, it's the same chemistry as the black high temp header paint and I've used it before and it does turn grey after a while, but no biggie to touch it up. The color is really nice and assuming it lasts at all it's a good $30 solution to my problem of a shitty-looking stock exhaust. I'm glad to have it because with it and the stock airbox and stock jettings - maybe I'll be in the 5-dimersional "ballpark".
btw..here's the project thread. I'll add it to my signature as well...
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=46201.0
