Thermal Coating and/or Paint on turbo?

I've heard a few decent things about thermal coating, what exactly is that? More importantly, does anyone know if that helps prevent rust? That's the factor I'm really looking into, how to prevent the turbo from rusting solid like the last one. Will 1200 degree paint hold up to the exhaust side of a turbocharger, or would I be wasting my time? Any other suggestions?

Bhuff: I probably didn't really say that right. The engine was pulled from a wrecked Merkur. If you recall, there were mouse droppings in the intake side of the turbo and the middle section back was indeed rusted. When I said rusted solid, I meant the bolts and strips of metal which hold the exhaust housing to the middle section, not the actual internals. That would be kind of impressive in a bad sort of way though.

Stinger: How well has the 1200* paint from autozone held up for you? I have a can of that, I was going to use it on some of the turbo parts, but it looks like that's what the last guy did and it looked like crap. All of it flaked off and baked over and looked like this dull gray/black/rusted mass. That's why I thought I would ask because I want mine to hold up better.

Touring23: Don't really care if it looks "pretty" or not. I'm not looking to blind people with Chrome under the hood, but I would like it to look better than stock and a thermal coating would help performance a bit, which is more important than looks anyway (IMHO). Gun metal gray is more appealing than rusted manifold red. That company looks like it has some other colors too, I may go with that. How much has it helped your performance? Any noticeable improvements?

Dr_Elusive: How much do Jet Hot coatings usually go for, and what advantage do they have (besides name) over the company Touring23 listed?

That's cool, I'll probably get some of that for the temp. reduction and corrosion resistance. Thanks all.