how to get rid of a rusted spot on the front of the exhaust stack?
 

When I had my air deflector removed from the roof of the truck, I noticed the front (very visible) top part of the vertical exhaust pipe had developed a nasty rusty spot right in the front! I changed the entire exhaust last summer and they gave me a "galvanized steel" version. I don't have a polishing machine ... I tried a rust inhibitor spray on the rusted spot but it didn't do anything. What would be the easiest way to get rid of the rusted spot besides losing the top stack and replacing it with a chromed one? Sandpaper? A file?

You can use an SOS pad if it's not too bad or use sandpaper and go from coarse to fine. It will rust again so you'll have to paint it. Aluminum heat paint might match up with the galvanized finish. Keep an eye out at the dealerships for takeoff chrome top pipes . They usually sell them at reasonable prices.

Sounds like the rust has found it's way through the galvanize coating on the pipe.

Not much you can do now except to sand the rusty area til all the rust is gone, then wipe down the entire stack with a solvent such as lacquer thinner or brake clean to remove all dirt, soot and oil from the surface, then spray paint the stack with hi temp silver paint.

http://www.plastikote.com/plastikote/sidemenu/hot.jpg

It'll look great again for now, but once the salt season sets in, that galvanize free area will start to rust through the paint again.

Not much else you can do except replace the stack with a new one.

get some rusty colored high temp paint & make the whole thing look the same.

I solved the problem in an expensive way - replaced the galvanized steel top stack with a shorter one covered with chrome. The truck looks much better now. Thanks to everyone for the comments.

I'm a little late with this but better late than never. Instead of painting something like an exhuast pipe go to a welding supply house and pick up a spray can of weld-tru primer, it is as close to galvanized as you can get and stands up to high temp better than any paint. Just make sure you shake the can real good and then shake it some more, it's some real thick @#%$