Hello, I just bought a set a hedman Hedders for my z28. I've heard that the black paint on the headers is just for shipping so they wont be rusted when you open the box. I've been told that when you fire the motor, the paint will burn and flake off rapidly... I cant afford to get them jet hot coated, so i bought a rattle can of duplicolor hi temp paint w/ ceramic... I know it's no-where near as good as jet hot coating, but it must be better that the shipping paint....

Should I strip off the factory applied paint before applying the hi temp paint? or should I just paint over it????

Thanks!

 

I'd strip it off, clean the surface really good, then paint them.

 

Yes, definately strip it.

When I bought some Edelbrock TES headers for my old Suburban (350 TBI), they arrived with the same black (shipping) paint. I put a wire wheel on my grinder and brushed all the paint off to bare metal, at least all that could be reached, and painted them with black hi temp, 1000-1500 degree paint. It worked great. They looked like new when I sold the Sub to a friend of mine back in April '05, and they still looked good a few weeks ago when I saw him again.

You should be fine with the paint that you're using.

 

i am actually in the process of trying kryon or krylon BBQ grill black paint (high temp)topped with duponts silver 1200 degree high temp paint. ill see how it goes next week

 

ok i did mine about a month ago, and they came out awesome.

supplies:
1 big spray can of aircraft paint remover(paint dtripper) $5
2 cans on duplicolor high heat $10
some 50 grit sand paper
a propane torch or heater of some sort. (oven if you dare...)
latex gloves and paint thiner

1. hang them ou side and spray them down with the paint stripper, let them sit for 30 mins, come back and do it again.
2. get a hose and squirt them off.
3. dry them off fast! this is where the propane torch comes in handy i used it to heat the inside of each pipe to evaporate any water that go into the tubes.
4. get out the sand paper and sand ALL of the paint off, every last bit. (after you paint strip it, there wont be to much left to sand)
5. get a air gun if you have one and spray nice and good to get all the sand and dirt off. or just wipe down reall really good.
6. get some gloves on(from here on out only use gloves to touch them becuase any oil underneath the high tmep paint with mess everything up.
7.with gloves on wipe down nice and good with some paint thinner to remove all of the oil and grim.
8. get out your heater or propane tourch and heat them up to warm, not hot! just warm. if its to hott the paint will melt and bubble and not stick to the metal. let cool for a second, and then hang up.
9. fun time, get out the paint, shake good. spray a light coat not every thing needs to be covered, just very light. repeat this step three times.
10. once everything is coverd with at least 3 coats, time for curing. you have a few choices here, what i did was got a food temp stick (like one used when you cook a turkey) then i put it in the EGR hole. i rigged up the headers to hang and under neath them i made the propane torch evenly heat them up from the collector. and it worked perfect, they stayed at like 300* IIRC, and let them sit for 20 mins ann cool then repeated twice. but if you dont heat them like i did, just follow the directions on the ca, and use a oven or salamander. its up to you.

that was is, they are perfect havent flaked or anything. and it only took 2 days, i did one at a time to see if i liked the results. you could probally do it in an afternnoon.