Meanwhile : Exhaust baffles

The 4L2 exhausts I bought from an ebay seller, arrived without baffles. No problem I thought, I have plenty of those in all of the wrecked pipes, and also tucked away in the parts box in the shed.
Not so!
I retrieved two from the pipes hanging up on in the garage… One seemed OK, one came out in two parts. One baffle remains within its pipe, absolutely refusing to come out and play. It will succumb to my will eventually, but i foresee chemical baths, heat and hammers in its future!
Two more were located in the parts box. All were very, very, oily and crusted up.
Having sung the praises of Caustic soda when pressed into duty as a tank cleaner, I now employed the chemical in a more traditional role of degreasing 2-stroke exhaust parts.

After 3 days in the caustic, I gave them a scrub with a nylon brush, (while wearing rubber gloves and eye protection, natch), and while not sparkling clean, they have mostly come up Ok.
Certainly sufficient for me to make an evaluation as to condition.
The one which came out in two parts had obviously been repaired before and the welding was insufficient to keep it connected.
Another had clearly been cut down from a longer length, then repaired with some spot welding, and rattled when waved about in the air.
Sometimes i speculate as to what an onlooker might see when observing me at work, and a figure dressed in protective gear, and bright yellow rubber gloves, waving a metal stick vigorously in the air, is an image which conjures up a wealth of weird, yet strangely comforting explanations.

Just two of the 4 baffles turned out to be usable, and these were identified as shorter from the manufacturer, and were probably supplied in this wrapper, (also found in the parts box).
They will probably work, but replacement pattern parts are sufficiently cheap that i will invest in some new ones.