Painting Headers???

FordGuy88 · Apr 10, 2008

Hey every body I know a lot of people have done this here. I am painting a set of long tube headers. I have already sand blasted them and used acid to take the surface rust off. Now I was wondering what kind of paint I should use. I dont want it to flake off. My girlfriends dad is sugesting pour 15. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,
Dave

stykthyn · Apr 10, 2008

even the best of the rattle can paints will bake off. if you want them to last send them off to be ceramic coated.

Ozz · Apr 10, 2008

indeed - but not just plain ceramic coated, get the high temp stuff. The 'special' stuff. Jet-Hot used to be the leader in that, but more and more coating shops have taken to doing high-temp coatings as well in the past few years. You might be able to find someone to do that locally.

Williams57 · Apr 10, 2008

my dad and i used some high temp white paint, from advanced auto, on the headers on our Nova, it held up fairly well. i think its about a year old in this picture. in the end i think any paint will burn off, but the high temp white seems to hold up the best. good luck

LiquidGT · Apr 10, 2008

They make POR-20 which is high temp stuff, dont know if it works for headers, but you can check it out.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Apr 10, 2008

LiquidGT said:
They make POR-20 which is high temp stuff, dont know if it works for headers, but you can check it out.

I thought about this too, even the Por-15 stuff. My next set of headers is going to be ceramic coated for sure, but even that will rust if you neglect it.

satanas · Apr 10, 2008

I've been looking around here in my town and nobody seems to do it around here,my next step was to send them out but you would have to pay for shipping both ways and thats a waste of money so I started looking around and found that theres some stuff that I seen on ebay that its ceramic coating but you would have to used a spray gun or a air brush, they recomend the sand blasting then coating header you would then have to bake them or have them cure for 30 minutes I would think with a bbq at 400 degrees ,but not sure.I think you can even put them on your car for 30 minutes then you would have to take them out then apply another coating and also comes with a clearcoat with polisher.It said you can coat two headers but doesn't say long tubes, I would buy two kits just in case.they don't seem that expensive.Im not sure If im allowed to put the url of this item but if you go on ebay an put (Techline Ceramic Exhaust Coating Kit with polish )It should come out. I think they selling for 25$ Good luck let me know if you buy them and how they turn out.

88-378 · Apr 11, 2008

I painted them before and it flaked off. Get them ceramic coated.

Turkey Sammich · Apr 11, 2008

Just don't paint them pink

satanas · Apr 11, 2008

Turkey Sammich said:
Just don't paint them pink

X2....lol

bloopbloob · Apr 11, 2008

not saying to try this, but what about something like caliper paint? i know thats pretty high temp stuff...
not sure on how high of temps, but how hot do headers actually get?????? i'm curious now.

satanas · Apr 11, 2008

bloopbloob said:
not saying to try this, but what about something like caliper paint? i know thats pretty high temp stuff...
not sure on how high of temps, but how hot do headers actually get?????? i'm curious now.

you got me thinking to so I did some research and found a brand that said "highest heat resistance on the DIY aftermarket (up to 980 degrees)"so it wouldn't work for headers.

bloopbloob · Apr 11, 2008

i thought mine said something like 1500*, but i'll go check... i'm sure i'm wrong, cuz that sounds awfully high!

edit: haha i wasn't even close on what mine said... 500, and its a ceramic paint

caseywan · Apr 11, 2008

I do powder coating myself and have both ceramic coating and high temp powder coating, and even the high temp powder coat stuff is not the best and will not last all the long. Ceramic coating is definitely the way to go.

Fordguy, I'm not too far from you, in Frankfort on the south side of Chicago. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in getting them coated.

FordGuy88 · Apr 11, 2008

The thing is I bought the headers for $125. I dont want to spend more on the ceramic coating. Plus if I get them coated I should have just bought new ones.

backfocus · Apr 11, 2008

Check out Eastwood:

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=394&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=390&iSubCat=394

Look at the Brush on silver, factory gray, or black. I have used the factory gray on my old S-10 drag truck headers and it worked well.

I also just painted my engine with the POR-15 engine paint and if the header paint is as good as the engine paint, it will be great stuff. It goes nice and the brush strokes will disappear when it dries.

One last bit of advice, plan on the eastwood coating lasting 1 to 2 years if you drive it quite a bit, or longer if you don't. They coatings are not near as good as a ceramic coating, but of course you are not paying the price for it either. To me Jet Hot still is the best for header coatings as they not only blast the outside, but inside as well. Then they coat the outside and inside, with a three year guarantee. Not many places do anything with the inside and that is where all the heat and most of the rust starts. An yes, I do have mine Jet Hot coated.

caseywan · Apr 11, 2008

Yeah, anything besides true ceramic really is not going to last all that long - Like backfocus said, some stuff works better than others and you MIGHT get a year or 2 out of it before it starts flaking off and rusting. Yeah, ceramic coatings costs more, but it's like forever almost.

When I ceramic coat, I clean the inside and outside and completely coat inside and outside, it's kinda pointless if you don't do both. I also use the exact ceramic coatings that Jet hot uses.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Apr 11, 2008

I've used the rattle can stuff that's rated to 1200 degrees and it flakes off within a few hours of running.

backfocus · Apr 11, 2008

caseywan, do you have a bead polisher too that makes the coating shine like Jet Hot's Sterling or extreme sterling coating? Just curious since I have some headers for a different project I will be needing done before too long.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Apr 11, 2008

Another option that nobody has mentioned is to put about 5 layers of paint on them and then wrap them. That's what i'm gonna do with mine when i take them out.

Painting Headers???

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