I'm considering powdercoating the pipes on my '27 coupe white. Does this stuff really hold up over time? Does it turn nasty colors or chip off? Anybody have any experience with powdercoating their pipes? thanx Zuluman
regular powdercoating will probably just burn off, the high heat stuff will probably last a little longer, but if you want to to last a ceramic coating is the best option.
Right near the head will get too hot,and discolor if you are lucky. That's why powder coated exhaust never caught on with the bikes.
If you want to do this the right way, you might as well work a little over time to spend the extra couple bucks. Either ceramic coat or chrome.
As far as I am concerned ceramic coating is the only way to go. I have used both HPC and Jet Hot and have been satisfied with both. The headers on my roadster were coated over 10 years ago and still look good. The only time I ever had the coating come off was after some severe timing issues and the company recoated them at no charge. All thet they wanted to know was that I had fixed the timing issues. The longest it has taken to get get a set of headers turned around for me was 10 days. The price wasnt evil, about $350 including freight to have the headers coated inside and outside. Chrome will turn blue if you dont have the timing and mixture set perfect, athough a little bluing of chrome headers looks pretty cool. Chrome doesnt dissipated heat as well as ceramic coatings do.
V-8 Headers cost $200 to ceramic coat up here at two different shops. I cant get a chrome shop to do headers here...........last quote was $700 for chrome, sending it out of state. No one will stand behind the chrome header work, if its going on a car.
forethought is a good alternative to money. polish the tubes yourself before the headers are welded, and finish them yourself after the welding is done. get them to the point that all they should need is a dip in the chrome vat and the price will be MUCH less.
Jet-Hot - http://www.jet-hot.com/Pages/colors.html Very, very happy with it. And it's reasonable...unlike chrome.
Here's what ceramic silver looks like. Not as shiney as chrome but does not blue either. It's always a trade off. chuck
I had my tailpipes powder coated (black) in the 80s, and they worked fine until the mild steel tube rusted through from inside. Stainless fixed that, although certainly at a price. The new system is mild steel; after I get everything squared away, it will go to get ceramic coated.
Personally, I find ceramic coating much better looking on headers than chrome anyway. But then I'm not one for excessive chrome on anything. BTW, that's a drop-dead gorgeous engine! Beyond the headers, exhaust really doesn't get that hot. Properly prepped, I've had just header paint hold up very well too with no problems on mufflers and pipes. Stainless is my favorite though. My Vette is completely 304 stainless from the Stainless Works headers to the rear mufflers. And my Model A will be done the same. A little pricey but you only have to buy it once and it always looks good.
PLUS ... preparation of the surfaces is a LOT less complicated for Ceramic coating, than it is for chrome. Doesn't "blue" over time either. One other feature is; the ceramic coating covers the INSIDES of the headers. (prevents rust out)
How the hell is everyone satisfied with ceramic coating? I've had 4-5 cars I built have ceramic coating done on either the cast manifolds, or headers, and every one has gone bad over say, 2-3 years! I even tried using different coaters....Jet Hot, HotCoat, even a local powder guy, who did high temp coatings. Not one lasted long enough for me to be satisfied. I even tried the Eastwood hi-temp powder coatings, since I got the powder system, and looked good for a few months, but starting to show signs of rust now. And I'm 100% positive they were clean when I coated them. So far, besides chrome, which blues, and eventually rusts, too, the best I've found was to have my cast iron dual manifolds for my straight six, done in black porceline. Looks great after many years!
I run high heat stain silver powder on my turbo housing and hot piping on my hotrod Harley. Its happy stuff and I know it gets scorching hot. I used the same powders on auto headers with good luck as well. powder technology has come a long way, there are some amazing colors/ powders available.
About 15 years ago I had a 4 stroke motorcycle exhaust powder coated. I started it up and rode down the block. About halfway down the block I looked back. The street was filled with smoke. I stopped and looked, the powdercoating was burning off the pipe. No flames, just smoke. After cooling off the powder was dull and just brushed off. I have Jet Hot on my 3 race bikes and have put it on a bunch more. I have had no problems with it at all. I also use aluminum polish like Mothers to shine it up. It looks alot shineier when It's polished. Don
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