I've go some rust on my F3's exhaust headers, and I'm not sure what the best way is to go about removing it. I was thinking about wrapping the entire exhaust with a titanium wrap, but I think I should get the rust off first.

And the pipes are painted black, not sure if that matters or not...

 

Take em off and sand em with about 1000 grit sandpaper ... it'll take a while but it'll get the job done ... (had to do it to my '04 Hornet ... it's headers were exposed to the world and they would occasionally need to be sanded off ... I should've wrapped em like you plan on doing) ....

 

Once the pipes start to rust it is usually a losing battle. Not sure what the weather is like over winter where you are but in the UK, there is so much salt on the roads that mild steel headers last 1-2 full winters before they need replacing with st/st versions.

The best you can hope to achieve is to sand down (1000 grit is FAR FAR FAR too fine, you'd be there all day and it would us loads of sandpaper) the exsisting paint and replace it with a good VHT paint. Most VHT paints will flake off where the exhaust is the hottest though (straight out of the head) and will need occasional reapplication. Plastikote BBQ paint seems to be the best as most good automotive VHT paints require a strange curing programme that is hard to achieve without a curing oven. Even then the pipe is likely to be somewhat rusty on the inside too and this cannot be painted/repaired.

Exhaust wrap will make them rust even worse, it just traps water and salt and keeps it in contact with your already rusting pipes.

Stripping and painting or replacement with st/st are the only worthwhile solutions.

 

Ceramic coating works well.

 

So eventually, I'm going to have to buy new headers then....



Yeah I figured wrapping them would allow moisture to build up, but I don't ride where there is a lot of salt/humidity.


Is there anywhere I can buy D&D headers? Or any headers that would fit the D&D slip on I have right now...

 

It sounds like you've got the factory headers on the bike. You can verify by looking at the down tubes for small tubes connecting the #1 pipe to the #2 pipe about 5" down from the top. They're on the back side of the headers closer to the engine. There is one connecting #3 and #4 as well. If you have them, then you've got the factory headers. A little surface rust is not that big of deal and pretty common. Since you've gone Street Fighter, then your exhaust is probably a little more visible and you're wanting to clean that up a bit. I can relate to that.

To do it right, removal of the rust would be the first thing to do. Removing the headers is a piece of cake, especially if you don't have fairings. The easy thing would be to locate a local media/sand/bead blasting company and take them there. It shouldn't cost that much to get them completely stripped of everything. Then the options are wide open. Painting is something you should do whether you're going to wrap them or not. Your local auto parts store will have High-Temp paint that you could use. Something I did was to buy a set of factory headers off ebay for like $50 (you can find them) in reasonable condition. I then took them to a local Ceramic coater and had them ceramic coated. They look great and almost like chrome or polished aluminum. Having the spare set of headers allowed me to eliminate any downtime on the bike other than when I swapped them. That was just a Saturday morning on the weekend. Here's an image of how they looked. Oh, yea, you can see the small tubes on the factory headers.

 

I agree with the others. Ceramic coating will do wonders. It is extremely durable and also retains the heat in the pipe and can potentially increase your hp slightly. If your short on money and can't have it professionally done, there are other options. They have come along way in the last few years with spray on ceramic coatings. I think the only issue your going to have with them is chips from rocks and sand from the front tire.

Heres a link to eastwood. They have some decent self applied coatings.
Eastwood Company: Search Results for header coating

As far as the header. You should be able to buy a just the header for the D&D. Contact them and tell them what you have. Although, you may want to just keep an eye on Ebay and look for one there. you could probably buy a used full system for the cost a new D&D header.