when i bought my FMF exhaust off Ebay it was pretty rough looking. it had a good amount of rust on the header, but the silencer was in nice shape. i took a wire wheel and got all the rust off in no time but it also took all the finish off of it too. since i didnt want it to rust up again after 2 rides, i polished it up real nice with mothers polish, then i made sure i got it all off with hot soapy water. And after that i painted it with a high temp clear cloat 3 times. i dont know what went wrong...maybe i didnt use a high enough temp paint, or i didnt let it cure correctly, or maybe all the polish didnt come off, but afteer i installed it the clear coat turned a almost a brownish-black color right near the exhaust port where its the hottest, and then as it goes up and closer towards the silencer it turned yellow and at the top its still clear. it didnt turn out bad looking, just at the bottom where its blackish it looks like exhaust splooge lol, and since it is the gold series pipe it almost looks like its should be like that. my little brother though the yellowish/gold color was normal but then i explained to him what had happened haha.