Looking for ideas and paint recommendations for exhaust

[Monty]

I'd like to replicate an exhaust system (duals) with, say, 30,000 miles. I'm not really interested in doing the heavy rust thing, just normal wear on a car from a state without a lot of snow/salted streets.

Pics of anything like this that you've done as well as paint and technique recommendations would be greatly appreciated. 

[Tom Geiger]

There are two types of exhaust.. regular metal pipes and stainless. Regular pipes start rusting right on the new car lot. Stainless look good for a long time. 

For the appearance you are looking for, paint the pipes and mufflers different shades of silver, then either a wet black wash or dry pastel chalk dust to accentuate.

Here’s one I did a while ago to replicate a used but not trashed exhaust system. This is pastel chalk dust applied over wet Testors Dullcote  

Edited January 19, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[Monty]

Only one response, but it was the only one I needed.  Tom, that's the look I was going for.  Thanks!

[Rodent]

What kind of car are you building?

[Monty]

13 minutes ago, Rodent said:

What kind of car are you building?

'65 Galaxie.

[charlie8575]

For most of my exhaust work, I use Vallejo Oily Steel, which has a slightly darker tone, and then dry-brush Vallejo Light and Dark Rust on it. The Dark Rust usually goes well at the joints.

Play with that a little. I also find the Oily Steel with the Dark Rust dry-brushed makes for an excellent appearance for near-new exhaust manifolds.

Charlie Larkin

[espo]

To try and paint an exhaust on say a 20 year old car or newer, these usually had some sort of mild coating and looked like stainless but not polished. I have been using Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver for the manifold too muffler pipes and the pipes from the muffler to the rear exhaust exit. For the mufflers I'll usually use TS-17 Gloss Aluminum. I'll use either Tamiya black Accent Panel Line or X-19 Smoke brush paints lightly around any muffler connection or bracket points.  I prefer a light application just enough to define the connections but not enough to make them the center of attention when you're looking at the exhaust system. A vehicle in use even in dry climates will have some dust and discolorations on the exhaust. I'll give the exhaust a little more used look by lightly spraying the exhaust system by holding it at arms length and spray it with a flat clear, in my case I use Tamiya TS-80 Flat Clear. This will knock down any gloss finish from the gloss aluminum mufflers but shows a different shade of color from the pipes. Depending on the type of usage you're trying to duplicate you can use the Arm Length technique with a Flat Black or a Dark Brown to Tan. I have found that the Military colors are a good place to look since they offer many types of Dirt Finishes. One real life personal experience with an exhaust system on a 1:1 car. We moved from Northern California in '96 to Kansas City. One our cars was an '85 Monte Carlo SS that had been driven on a regular basses there in all types of weather and the exhaust system looked almost as new even with 90k miles. The car at this point was not driven here in anything but perfect weather for a couple of years. One spring morning I was going to get a hair cut and since the roads were clear of any snow and only the melting snow on the side of the road was running in only a few places and since I hadn't driven the car all summer and the sun was out I thought it would be a good idea to stretch  the tires a little. Even with minimal road splash the exhaust started to look like Tom Geiger's photo within 30 days. So there is your target somewhere  between the two.