Anyone know what the factory used for exhaust heat shield plating on these cars? Almost looks like semi gloss nickel to me. Need to re-plate a few parts.

 

Not 100% positive what it is, are you concerned with originality, if not there are much better materials out there that glue on. These will lower heat and reduce noise.

It looks like a galvanized metal, it will rust eventually.

 

Originality is what I'm going for.

 

 

 

or

for example -- the paint on lizard skin heat shield looks promising also.

 

This is kind of what it looks like to me but could be galvanized or nickel.

https://automotive.arcelormittal.com...pplications/EN

 

 

This is one off of another car but is the same coating.

 

That looks close enough to me, I mean you will be what hand forming this part out of sheet right so its not going to be 100% identical. I've never seen one as clean as the picture you just posted. Aluminized sheet metal would be close also. Or are you looking to re-coat the original?

 

Re-plating originals.

 

Always figured they're a low grade of stainless.

 

Ahh misunderstood... the coating you linked to I think would fool everyone except maybe the engineer that designed the part into thinking it was factory.

I've used this paint to paint mufflers etc and seems to hold up pretty well -- it finishes a lot like the coating on mid 90's Toyota exhaust systems.

 

If it were me, I'd want to splurge for replating, but in reality, I am fairly certain I'd end up cleaning the heat shields extensively, then they'd be treated with a high temp rattle can Mexi-Chrome. Because here is the thing... At some point, a regularly driven car is going to have it's heat shields oxidized, or discolored from heat, exposure, etc. Any plating to an extent is a sacrificial coating to delay the deterioration. Paint, assuming it doesn't get incinerated by cat converter heat, may even hold up better than the original treatment.

But that said, if I had the time, finances, and steadfast willpower, I'd love to hold my projects to a standard as high as @TTOP350's. I look forward to hearing about your solution!

 

Forum tags now? wow, kind of nifty!

I just want to re-plate them so people will see that I went the extra mile when I drive by....

 

Definitely not

 

A few years back, I had a local shop add a Camaro muffler and twin tail pipes to my A-body Buick wagon. After the install, I wiped the muffler and tail pipes down, and sprayed them with silver VHT header paint. Photo below about a year or so after that. It kept the edges of the pipes from rusting, etc., which is what I wanted. You can see the muffler has a heat shield, in a material not unlike what you are working with.




It goes on a little bright, but not fake-chrome-like. It's a matte finish. But as you can see, with a little age, it's a fair match for the heat shield.

Spray pipe a test piece on your daily driver and see what you think after it ages. While "cheap" isn't a criteria for this build, if it does the job, and handles the heat well, why not?

 

Kind of late to the party but you might want to see if this stuff is a good match to what you're looking for.

Bright Zinc - http://briteproducts.com/products.php

I used to use this to touch-up sheet metal, electronic chassis when the zinc dip was thin in spots (this was back in the early '90's). We were more interested in corrosion resistance than looks.

Bright Zinc was produced by a third party for Bright Products which is now under the CRC umbrella. Who knows if the formula has been tweaked.

Pre-CRC stuff:


Their website describes it as "shiny" but it's more of a semi-gloss to matte, IIRC. The finish appearance will depend on the surface of the substrate. I don't see exhaust heat being an issue but....