what are the original factory mufflers made of?

[KellieLyyne]

Does anyone know if these stock factory mufflers were stainless steel, or steel chrome plated, or aluminum?

[mike1969]

The early ones were made of stainless,later were chrome.

[LOUD MOUSE]

????????????????????????????????????. ..........lm

The early ones were made of stainless,later were chrome.

[mike1969]

????????????????????????????????????. ..........lm

The early ones were made of stainless,later were chrome.

lm,what's with the ?????. I have one stainless and one chrome muffler on my Dream.

[LOUD MOUSE]

Sort of means that my DREAM parts book shows IRON first then Stainless.
My CB72/77 book shows IRON then Stainless then back to IRON. .............lm

????????????????????????????????????. ..........lm

The early ones were made of stainless,later were chrome.

lm,what's with the ?????. I have one stainless and one chrome muffler on my Dream.

[mike1969]

Wow,what year did they change over to stainless? It's weird they would switch from a cheap material to a more expensive material. Seems counterproductive.Usually business will start out with expensive material and cheapen it as the production continues.

Then again,who am I to question Mr. S.Honda.

[G-Man]

I believe that the early, chrome-plated steel ones suffered from rapid corrosion in some countries. The stainless steel ones were made of a lighter section of stainless steel and the grade of steel was not the highest for corrosion resistance.

My 1962 Dream had one stainless muffler still attached but the bracket welds have failed through corrosion and it is perforated in several places.

Interestingly there are early and late Dream mufflers with different inlet stubs (straight and annular) and I have examples of stainless and chrome-plated steel in both types. Maybe Honda changed their minds more than once or used different materials for different markets.

G