The Camaro Club (UK)

Anyone know of any decent exhaust header paint? I've tried painting freshly shot blasted headers with a few coats of Eastwood Grey but after only a month of sitting (unfitted and un-cured) in a normally dry garage they rust!!

Any thoughts? I only want to fit these things once.............

you can get them professionally 'ceramic painted'. I have seen adverts for that somewhere.

I was welding up my VFR800 (motorbike) header this weekend and painted it with high temperature engine enamel and that stays on for a while. Halfords do a 'very high temperature' manifold spray paint, but the red one looks more like pink.

If you are serious about it, i would go for ceramic coating. If you are looking to make it look good for cheap and stop it looking rusty, then use exhaust pipe wrap and tape it up. It will look good and stop your engine bay heating up too much.

I hope that helps.

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Microsoft: "You've got questions. We've got dancing paperclips."

I had mine aluminium sprayed/coated. They shot blast them first & spray molten aluminium onto them & they come out white. Very tough & durable & only cost £30.00 the pair. Let me know if you're interested & I'll dig out their details, as it's a bit late at the mo

here's a pic of them fitted, they're a bit dirty here after fitting, but cleaned up oK cheers......Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

that is a new one to me.... they look lovely :-D

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Microsoft: "You've got questions. We've got dancing paperclips."

Good tips. Love the aluminium spray... I'd be very grateful if you've got details.

Thanks very much. Engine looks good btw

As I said they look a little grimy in that pic after fitting them, but cleaned up ok with some degreaser. The company I used was Avanti Engineering in Tipton ( on 0121 557 1153.) They charged £30.00 (plus carriage to send them back). I took them there personally & they did them in a morning for me, but I had arranged to go there first. They shotblast the headers first & then spray on the molten aluminium. I had a set like this on my '55 Chevy & it lasted really well with no maintenence required.

Here's a video of how it's done:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_QrrVWet4M

Here's something I posted on another forum about this:-

Following on from my previous thread on header coatings,I thought I'd let you know how I got on with Avanti Engineering in Tipton ( on 0121 557 1153.) I rang them up for a quote to hot ali spray a pair of headers for my small block. The guy quoted me £30.00 plus carriage to send them back to me if I were to post them to them. I arranged to take them personally as they said they could do them in one day, I also took a pair of Chrysler headers for my mate, (they'd agreed to do them as well).

I got to their premises at 9.15am explained what I was after & left them with them. At 1.00 pm I get a phone call to say that they were ready for collection. When I got there they were sitting on the floor wrapped up ready. They'd shot blasted them & given them 4-5 coats of hot ali & were absolutely cock on. Totally covered even down in between the tubes where they enter the collectors, the total cost?......... £30.00. The Chrysler ones were a few quid dearer as they were very badly pitted & bigger) Considering I'd been quoted over £200.00 from various companies, to say I'm well chuffed is an understatement.

They also do stainless, bronze & metal spraying, so if you need a metal surface building up before machining to its original spec then they can do that also, hth ......Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

My headers are with Avanti right now. A thought has occured to me though... aluminium corrodes as well so how do your headers look now? I might go for stainless coating if they're bad.

Thanks,

Sam

Hi Sam, my headers look fine even after getting them glowing red whilst running in the cam . I had a pair aluminium coated on my big block '55 Chevy & they lasted really well. After a while they just turned an off white colour. A friend of mine has a pair that were coated on a Mustang back in the '80's & again they've just turned an off white colour & haven't oxidised like aluminium would normally. I've not had the stainless coating done so I can't comment on it I'm afraid hth, cheers....Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

Just got the headers back from Avanti and they look good - an interesting matt silver/white in colour. Asked for them to be done in zinc due to my previous concerns about corrosion but take on board your comments. Will take some pictures when I get them on the wagon in a few weeks.

Cheers

Sam

Does this coating have a thermal barrier ie does it reduce under bonnet temps ?