I've got a new pair of headers from Red's Headers for my 55 F100 Y block. What's the best spray can coating for these? They are bare metal right now.
guy at work sparyed rattle can ceramic on some exhaust sections for his harley, luckily the we work at a powder coating booth so baking them wasnt an inconvience. hes pretty happy with the results and i think it cost him like 16$ and used only one can.
1) Strip to bare metal & degrease 2) Pre-heat in oven or other way without surface contamination 3) Spray several thin coats of VHT 4) After paint dries bake in oven or heat gently to cure 5) Sleep on couch alone for a week if married and using kitchen oven.
I have heard that header paint works if you bake it according to instructions, But I do not have a large enough oven to bake headers in, so it has not worked well for me. I have had the best results with high temp power coat and it is reasonalbly priced,,,,,,
High temp powder coating is THE way to go. POR-15 paint has done reasonably well for me, but the surface hust be uber-clean. It tends to adhere better when I apply it to already hot manifolds
A torch blowing inside of the tubes does a remarkable job of heating. In the past I've found that using a metal treatment(the green stuff like Ospho) on the bare steel first prevents future rust, however this must be cooked after it has dried, or the paint will flake in the hot spots(the first bends coming off the heads), so I treat, wait overnite, heat(internally), paint, and cook the paint between coats. Heat actually speeds the whole process, but be careful, if you get in too big a hurry you can get a flame-out! Just another tip from yer UNCLEE!
The Jalopy Journal
