drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

Is there a header paint that works? I would like to paint my heddman headers with some kind of "Ceramic looking" paint. They are new and have never been installed, so any kind of prep is ok.... I just dont want them to look ugly, a few months after installation....
Thanks, Guys!!!!

white91

I just recently finished doing my hedman lt's. I stripped the black paint that they come with off then wiped them down with "Klean prep" I think is what it's called. Then I painted them with VHT aluminum color. I did it in several light coats which came out pretty good. If you can't bake them first to cure the paint be careful putting them on because the paint is soft and scratches easy. I had to take mine back out to repaint them from getting scratched.

gcgarner

Read my post here:

VHT Header Paint Tips & Tricks

If you read all the way to the bottom, you'll see that I said "F it" and shipped them out to be coated anyway. I tried to make them nice the cheap way, and they just looked cheap. Spend a few extra bucks and get them done right. BTW they look killer and I don't regret having them coated at all.

89RsPower!

never had any luck with paint personally, let us know if you do any better.. ceramic coating is better in so many ways but I'm sure you know that already.. I just wish getting headers coated was a tad cheaper..

gurkgurkgurk

make sure to prime i cant stress it enough.

when u first get them, take all the paint and junk off, as much as possible then wipe it down with laquer thinner, then wipe it with a tack cloth, then get a high temperature primer, or use epoxy primer if u cant find it at the autoparts store then go with the color.

make sure to just shoot on some light coats then when it gets sticky shoot on a full on coat

GMLSX

you could just ship them to jet hot and have them coated for you?

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

How much does it cost to have them ceramic coated? (Average) I know its better, but I have three project cars right now (Yes, I'm a dumb-***!!) and money is kind of tight right now.

gcgarner

Mine were about $275. Well worth it. They look better than paint ever could, they are coated inside and out so no rusting at all, and they keep engine bay temps cooler (although I doubt it's much).

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

That dosen't sound too bad... Do you know who I should ship them to? Jet-hot? I've heard of them, but no Idea where they are...

gcgarner

I shipped mine to High Performance Coatings here in NC. Google them. You can save yourself some money by prepping them before you ship.

89RsPower!

You may want to check with your local speed shop to see if anybody does them locally, I got a set done for $180 inside and out by a guy the local speed shop set me up with, 3 years later and they still look new. Jethot quoted me $280 for the same set.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

We have lots of speed shops here... I think I will try asking them... Thanks guys!!!

superbee

on my truck, i had hedmans, they have a shitty black coat that i think a monkey could spray on better. anyway, sanded that off, washed them, didnt even use any surface prep stuff of then than soap and water, got some of the duplicolor hight temp engine paint, the one that in every store almost, black and silver bottle.

Sprayed several coats on, put it in mommy's over for 30 mins or whatever the can said. And now like helll 3-4 years later being daily driven most of its life, and even ran 30 miles in limp mode wiht the exhaust hot enought to warp the collector flange, they look the exact same as when i did it.

NO ****. I dont knwo why everyone has such bad opinions on rattle paint on headers, i guess its the fact that no one puts them in the oven to bake the paint on, but it turned out good for me.

Its not as thick and heat reducing os a ceramic finish but hell, for under 10 bucks i wont complain.

Pic in my avitar of what they look like...(if it shows)

89RsPower!

Most people don't have a spare oven to bake the paint on. People normally refrain from putting toxic substances in an oven they cook food in. Also most household ovens are too small to fit most headers in, a pair of block hugger or shorties would likely fit though.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

i tried using hightemp header paint once... sprayed it on my headmans.... soon as it started for the first time i watched it burn off!! AUGH! now my header collectors are rusted to cr@p. i even tryed it on my exhaust tubing... 6 months later everywhere i sprayed the paint its pure rust.... i didnt bake it on tho... ovens arent big enough for full length headers... i heard of a guy who said to spray a coat and bake it on with a propane torch and do a couple of coats like that.

online170

That was me...

I have these cheap shorty headers that a guy down the road had. He was moving to alberta and needed to get rid of his junk, so i gave him $100 and he gave me a bunch of stuff for my car.

I had someone buff the rust off the headers and spray them with some random paint, dunno which kind...

WHen i was ready to install them, i stripped as much of the old paint off as i could with a wire wheel. Degreased it like mad, and waited for any solvents to evaporate.

I sprayed VHT high heat black paint. The one that says good to 1600* or something like that. After each coat, i "warmed" up the headers (it was winter). I didnt get them scorching hot because then the paint wouldnt get on the same. I heated with a propane torch.

I gave it as many coats as the can would allow.

Then i baked them with a propane torch on full pelt. I could see the paint drying up as it heated, and when it finally stopped changing i knew it was dry.

Ive had them on my car for a year now. They see daily driving in the summer, winter storage, and the occasional weekend at the strip. They are also header wrapped, and my paint still looks good. They havent rusted out on me yet.

My thermostat usually reads 190, but sometimes it heats up to 200-210.

However, if you bought ur headers new, go with the coating, i think its the better option, and will last MUCH longer.

superbee

most shorties will fit, and i can assure you, you wont have some kind of poisonous gas stained in your over that will soak in your food and kill you after you eat it.

zddp8868

vht works fine, but then again so does BBQ paint from home depot. the secret is in the prep.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

LOL, poisonous gasses aside, I might be tempted to try the paint thing after all!!!

zddp8868

strip the headers down to bare metal.

spray primer on there in light coats. aim for the cracks and crevices first before getting the obvious parts, this way it doesnt run or get packed on there thick. 2 light coats of primer should do it. then paint them the same way. 4 light coats will last a long time.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

what kinda primer? high temp? or just regular... it would have to be high temp i assume right?

superbee

btw, i remember mine was the duplicolor high heat one. I didnt use primer either... and still works great. If you decide to use primer, you better find out if you need to bake that , THEN use the color coat and bake it again, or if you bake it only once, and how long between coats is very cruitial too...heck id almost just forget the primer, but then again i never used it so I dunno..

zddp8868

i didnt use high temp and they came out fine. i just used what i had laying around, normal rattle can primer

superbee

well im glad that worked for you, but thats sketchy, if that primer boils off, your color coat is obviously gone then too. Id make sure u get the right primer

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

yea but who makes hi temp primer lol??? lets throw out sum companies here lol.

zddp8868

its all in the prep. worse case senario, if for whatever reason it doesnt work for you, pull the headers out and repaint them............lets try not to make a mountain out of a molehill here. but like i said its lasted for 4 months on one car and for close to one year on another.

online170

Why do you need primer?

Ive never used primer on any hi-temp paint application. I just strip the old paint rust off, and degrease with a good degreaser (usually brake clearner) and spray the paint.

I had my headers sand blasted, then i just wiped a degreaser on them, and went nuts with VHT. its been on for 2 years and still goin strong.

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

do these cars that have a yr to 2 yrs on them see daily driving as in rain and road salt during the winter? bc that would take the paint off real quick... im just asking... i didnt use primer either and my high temp paint burned off as the car warmed up

zddp8868

i dont know anybody who cares about their car that drives it in the rain or winter. but then again this isnt a classic car thread i keep forgetting.

paint it and see for yourself. its so much cheaper to paint it, even if you wind up doing it once a year. at about 10 bucks a pop, it would take you years to get up to the price of a professional coating.

online170

Did you use VHT? Did you cure it properly? Hi temp paint needs hi temp to cure, and it should be heated up not too long after its sprayed.

My car doesnt see winter, but it is daily driven in summer, rain and all. It was off the road for the majority of the summer this year, but it lived through something much worse..... a humid garage. I havent seen any rust on the headers, but alot of the unprotected metal parts on the car took a beating.

As for the cheap paint remark, the objective here is to protect the headers. If you have cheap headers like me (basically free) use the paint. If you just bought new headers that were expensive, use a coating. It might be cheap to spray paint over and over but it wont protect the same.

gcgarner

PJ-1 in their VHT line. This is what I used on mine.

http://www.jegs.com/i//322/SP118/10002/-1

superbee

Dude wtf, read. LOL Im not making it up, here is a pic. That pic is a year old if that, i can go out and take another pic with my laptop opened to this thread if you want HAHA

Granted this last year its become a garage queen, but i swear i had to drive my truck to work everyday rain or snow. And believe me, theres plenty of salt in kansas, i got a 5 inch hole in my back fender that appeared just this last year.



and one more note, thats in a square body style blazer that has the big flat front end, and believe me, all the road **** splashes through the rad and onto the motor, so it does get dirty

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Heres my take on rattle can..................
iv tried many types of "header" aka high temp paint and primmer with ceramics etc etc nothing last and looks nice no matter what prep work you do thats just a fact. now nothing at all wrong with high temp rattle can in most cases it can last for many summers. it does its job! my best set i coated was one i had media blasted then prep, primmed and painted inside and out then had the paint baked on.... they came out looking great but started to bubble after being run on the engine for the first few seconds like the other 2 sets i had.... disappointment set in but it was worth a shoot i guess. the paint didn't flake or anything it stuck so it does what it was intended to do but it looked like **** so i ended up ordering headers from jet-hot.... oh! before i started taking out the painted ones i didn't realize that one of the primary's was hitting the k-member and it turned out that more then just one primary was pinched so i had a lot of cutting and modifying to do i'm glade i had painted headers before i went with jet hot other wise who knows

these where wire wheeled and painted with one type of paint and where on the car for one summer


then the ones above i had media blasted and baked


then the ones i had media blasted and baked bubbled
so i order jet-hot



heres a side by side shoot.
(painted on your left, jet-hot on your right)

so basically my conclusion is this if you don't care how they look and want them to last longer then they come out of a box paint them inside and out! in doing so it will reduce under hood temps too! but if you want them to last and look nice for nearly ever ceramic coated headers are the way to go hands down! they will really reduce under hood temps and keep the heat in the tubes thus in return helps optimize performance!