hey guys, i just got my uncoated hooker headers in the mail. They look good but they are flat black, i kinda would like to paint them with some high temp paint. What do you think? Will it rust real quick or fall off or will it last?

 

It depends on what paint you use, and how you cure it. You also have to get ALL of the factory paint off first. Get them sand blasted or something.

 

Use VHT Flameproof paint. I sandblasted mine, sprayed them with VHT, then hit them with a torch for a little bit to "cure" it on there. So far so good... A friend of mine has had this stuff on his headers for 2 years now and they still look great.

 

Yeah I don't really want to do that much work, because i dont have all my old tools since getting moving to florida. I will see if my roommate could get them, but if that doesn't work i will not bother. I'm assuming "cure" means kinda givin some heat to the paint after painting them to get a nice stick. I was just thinking out buying a few cans of high temp paint and shooting them with that, but if thats not going to work i wont bother unless I can get some tools. Maybe I'll talk to someone bout getting them powercoated hehe

 

Any powdercoater will claim the coating will survive on your headers but I assure you it won't last longer than a day I've tried all kindsa high-temp paints and VHT is the best bang for the buck. If the headers are brand new with the black paint still on them you wont even need to sandblast them ...just wipe all the paint off.

 

LOL, not untrue

 

So I can just wipe it off, and spray some high temp paint on, Thats awesome I'm going to head over to discount and get some high temp paint tommarrow. Can I put primer on or not with the high temp paint?

 

LOL... I think the "wipe it off" bit was sarcasm man it isn't too far from the truth though.

Get them sandblasted first, then use VHT on them. Do a few coats of it... one coat, bake, 2nd, bake..... etc.

No, you don't need any primer. You spray the VHT onto bare metal.

 

You can "wipe" them off with lacquer thinner if you don't mind spending a couple of smelly, messy hours at it.

Sand blasting also roughens the surface slightly to help the paint stick a little better. Wipe them down with the lacquer thinner just before you spray them.

I've used the DEI high temp paint from Summit on two sets. Both still look fairly decent, the 1st set was done in Nov '01 and the car is driven daily year-round.

 

I used DupliColor 1500* header paint. So far so good. It was about $8cdn a bottle IIRC.