That's a good one they were normally left plain as are made of low grade stainless. I haven't painted a header for a long time but any of the high temperature paints used to last well as long as the surface was thoroughly beadblasted or similar. Bound to be someone along soon who's done one recently.
The original finish was what I would describe as a satin sheen which quickly turned to bronze and then rust. Polishing them works well but you have to keep on top of it. I had the headers of a previous MTS1200 ceramic coated with Kermachrome. It stood up to the weather quite well but looked more like an aluminium finish than stainless or chrome.
OK, so the italians came up with a version of stainless steel that rusts. I have some silver high temp paint so I will start with that after blasting them. The fairing hides almost all the header so I'm not too worried about the colour but I don't want it to rust through.
It's more a dark tarnish and despite the grade i've yet to see one perforate as a result. I think the very early, single silencer systems might have been mild steel but that was around 1991.
That's reassuring, I haven't got it off the bike yet but I was worried about it falling apart as I work on it.
