original exhaust with area's of black paint

as I am working on the undercarriage I have found the back portion of the exhaust to have black paint/black coating on it, muffler, tailpipe. There is no question that it is original exhaust and you can tell that the black is original as well. Was this like this on all of them - it makes it difficult for deciding what to do for judging, I have it all steel wooled down, but of course in some area's it's left with a smooth black coat and other area's are bare metal.

It was painted a standard GM chassis black.... sometimes it looks flat, sometimes satin.

I have polished both of my cars exhaust tips as shiny as I can and don't expect to be docked more than one point.

I have touched up the black on the muffler and related parts.

Thanks Barney, looking over mine as I have spent more time since I posted, it seems only my muffler and tailpipes are black I see no trace of black from the muffler forward.

My '88 has black on the muffler and some overspray on the tail pipes but the whole tail pipes aren't painted.

Must be so the muffler doesn't show up when following one.

It appears that the mufflers were painted on the cars? I have a new original GM Reatta muffler that is stainless and not painted.

since you have the muffler cleaned up, might as well paint it. i think i'd use a rattle can ceramic hi-temp engine paint (the muffler does get a bit warm). your choice of flat, matte, etc...

Thanks, already painted back to black

Both the muffler and the twin pipes on my car came black from the factory. No black on the pipe upstream of the muffler.

It is a good detail to look at. My car got dinged a point in Portland because there was a little bit of surface corrosion on it.

The muffler and tailpipes on my '89 and '91 are both painted flat black. IMHO it gives the car a much 'cleaner' look from the rear view.

In fact, I liked it so much, I performed the same treatment on my '06 Trail Blazer and it looks equally sharp.

Rattle cans have their place, for sure!

Thanks Bob, I agree it's better not seeing them than seeing a bright and shiny hanging back there.