I'm getting a set of used headers from my buddy, but they have a decent amount of surface rust. Before I install them on my car, I was thinking of sanding off the rust and painting them black to keep away rust and make the engine a little cleaner. Is there any adverse affect so long as I use temperature safe paint or do the headers get too hot for the paint to work?

 

just regular spray paint?

 

I wast thinking something like engine paint or something that would resist high temps.

 

I have some headman hedders that came painted black. By the time the engine was broke in, the paint had burned right off. After a couple of years, the tubes rusted up. I used a wire wheel to clean them up, and I painted them with some Plasticote ceramic header paint. They have been back in the car for about 6 monthes and the paint still looks pretty good. Maybe I will post a pic here tomorrow and show. The can said the paint sticks better if you bake them afterwards, but my wife would kill me if I had my headers in the oven.

I am sure there are lots that post here who have used the ceramic header paint with similar success. Doa search.

Justin

 

A search will yield the desired information.

Sand blasting is superior to hand sanding or wire brushing. I'd also recommend using laquer thinner to wipe them down just before painting.

Baking does help cure the paint to ready it for the heat exposure. One set of long tubes I did, I used two propane torches to heat the paint after it dried (wouldn't fit in the kitchen oven). After two seasons of drag racing, they still look relatively decent.

 

I did the same thing as you. I bought some used headers and they had some surface rust. Just sand it really good and for the tight spots I used a dremel. Clean the headers good before you paint them. I used some high temp ceramic paint from Kragens and it worked pretty good. The paint has not chipped and the color still looks good.

 

Here is an article on how to remove paint and rust by electrolysis. I just did a set of headers using this method. It took about 5 days to do both headers using a battery charger. I still had to sandblast some spots, but I was just testing the method.
http://www.fboerger.com/Restoration%...m#Electrolysis

You can also check out POR 20 for paint, I hear others have had success with its high temp resistance.

 

id use either duplicolor high temp or vht. just read the directions and put a very very light coat on. the paint that comes on headers is a shipping paint that the manufactures say is for shipping only and they recomend you to remove it prior to installing the headers.

 

http://www.techlinecoatings.com/Exhaust.htm

If you're going through the effort of cleaning them, at least use something worth your time if you're not going to have them coated by a pro.

90% of spray bombs are a joke as the (duplicolor) 1500 temp is the max flash (brief) temp. The ones that do have any type of durability (long heat exposure) have silicone in them (VHT and Eastwood brand are two that come to mind offhand).

It's similar to the RMS and peak power input rating on a speaker.

Just my opinion though....

 

All our our headers in the past we've had them sand blasted since it is so cost effective, wipe them down with laquer cleaner/brake clean. We then have used our propane torpedo heaters to "warm" the headers, you dont want them turning blue LOL. All of us have had excellent results with VHT high temp paint for a brand recommendation. After we've applied the paint we'll throw them in front of the torpedo heater again for a "fake bake"

Last 3 sets of headers we've done this way have held up very well, my last set of Heddman LT's looked really good considering that they were 2yrs old.

 

DEI 1500 degree paint from Summit is what I used on mine.