I know, I know...but here is the deal. I am building a Gasser. In fact there is a build thread here on the HAMB. From day one when I picture it complete, it has white headers. I could have painted them but I opted to have them ceramic coated in white. The guys I used come very highly recommended but when I dropped them off, the shop foreman tried his best to talk me out of it. He said it was a very thin coating. He said it was hard to do. He said they had to put a chrome ceramic coating on it first, He said they would yellow a bit when hot but them go back to white. He said the owner hated doing white. I totally got the impression he didn't WANT to do them HOWEVER, he never said they would look like crap! ....and they do! They look like a second grader tried to shoot them with cheap Wal-Mart spray paint. It is very translucent in some places while other places the coating is very heavy. There are runs all over them...simply not acceptable. They offered to do them again but this time in the standard chrome ceramic and with the alternative laying in the grass in front of me I agreed. Here is the question. Is there any reason why I can not paint them white when I get them home. I know it sounds crazy but they will have the ceramic protection inside and out, any reason why I can't put a good quality white exhaust paint over the top....?
Can you get them to remove the coating, and refund your money? then you can go to O reillys and buy a couple cans of VHT white and do it "right".
I know. But these guys coat them inside and out, I really thought that was a good idea. I have been on a couple of other forums and it has been pretty conclusive. Scuff them a bit and hit them with the VHT. Who knows, maybe I will really like them polished. We shall see.
You going to get away with scuffing them a little bit and painting them. I would take them and have them bead blasted then paint them, you have to break the glaze and simple scuffing is not going to do it for you. Be sure and tell your blaster to not lean on them really hard all you want to do it break the glaze.
Okay...good call guys. I actually got a hold of the guys doing the ceramic coating and they blasted them this morning to get them ready for the chrome ceramic. He said all they had to do was some quick light sanding to clean them up and then they would be ready for the next step. I told them to just stop right there. I have some one picking them up in the morning. It sounds like the perfect time to paint them!
I'll bet if the inside was coated with the shiny stuff the paint on the outside would hold up better. I would think the heat would be reflected and stay inside more than uncoated. Just a thought.
I have been told by many that ceramic coating the inside of the headers does just that, helps keep the heat in and the paint on.
I agree. That is why I think we are at perfect place to paint them. They are coated on the inside and have had the top level glaze blasted.
I had the headers on my coupe done about 3 years ago. They were blasted to bare metal. Then they were alumi-coated and then finally, coated with white ceramic. They didn't last but one year before they dis-colored. They looked like they had a brown growth on them sort of like a fungus or something. I just sanded them down with a red 3M pad and re-painted them VHT white. Even if the VHT starts to come off, there is a light color underneath. It was really strange how they turned out. We took another set of headers for a car we were building in the shop at the time. They were done the same as mine and they are still looking great. You can see them in this picture of the car we were building
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