ok small update spent a couple of hours on the under side witha variety of wire brushes, preparing the surface for protection and paint only managed to do a smallish section so far.

and i've had the exchaust in the lounge for the last couple of nights (to the misses delight), spent around 3 hours on it so far, slowly getting there.
So from this:

to this (so far):

Didnt realise my friend who owns the body shop has a sand blaster so will make life so much easier to prepare the hubs etc for painting once i get them removed.
David