white headers: how much of a pain in the ass are they?

How hard are white headers To keep looking presentable?

 

early '70s!! the paint would flake and i would hit them with a brush and reblast with a rattle can often
today there are paints ect. that should work better. last winter i looked all over for a white "hot" powder coat no can find...after i did them in black i found a white paint from eastwood

 

I used this on mine.
http://www.eastwood.com/ceramic-coating-white-4-oz.html
Seems to be holding up so far, although I think I could have put it on a little thicker. I also used an internal coating on the inside of the headers.
http://www.eastwood.com/ew-hi-temp-internal-exhaust-coating-w-extension-tu.html

 

You can see my home made tri Y headers through the louvers. I had these "aluminized" by a hotrod shop back in the early 80s Its an industrial process used to build up aluminun pieces to be re-machined for expensive parts. This was before the ceramic coatings available today. VHT white was handy for touching up any stains. Befrore the advent of ceramic coatings this was the state of the art for lasting cosmetic coatings.

 

They are a nightmare. Had some old "Blackjack" headers on an old Ford pickup years ago and they looked like dookie 2 weeks after the install. I touched them up with regular white Krylon cause I was cheap...and it never stuck. Rust pops and soot marks near the collector. If I had to do it again, I would either paint them black with engine / grill paint or blast them and coat them.

 

Thanks guys. I've been contemplating doing this. I love the look of whit headers , but figured that look mightn't last with real world driving

 

Years ago, I tried to get some headers ceramic coated white. I couldn't find anyone that I trusted to do it. HPC told me "coat it and then paint it white on top of that". I don't know if anything has changed since then or not.

 

Tommy,
I know a guy with an OT car that has that same coating on the headers that came on the car. I think it is reall slick, do you klnow of a company still doing that or what it is actually called so I have a starting place?

As for the original question white headers stain real bad in my experience and do require some periodic maintence to keep them pristine. it helps if you can avoid a sharp turn right out of the port, that is where they burn the worse and if they can run straight for a bit they don't burn as bad. Be real careful not to drip oil on them especially when they are hot, that is certain death to the finish and real hard to over come without stripping them and starting over.

All that said I rweally like them white, I don't like the upkeep so it is not going to be something that you will commonly see on my car but they do look sharp.

 

These were aluminized in '63..................................

 

My headers were jet hot coated. Using SOS pads kept them looking good.

 

.......................they still look good 47 years later. The car, not so much.

 

dean
Its a shame that it is not the other way around on that poor little RPU. I was once a fine ride. I hope that you are going to put it back up in shape.

 

i ran white headers on daily driver 55 chevy in the 70's for a long time. Had to retouch them up every few weeks to make them look good. Used the hi temp header paint in a rattle can. It was a pain .

 

Mr Lowe: Did you get your original truck back? Sure hope so. You don`t know me from Adam, but your truck was one of my 1st favs;still is. Sorry to highjack thread : I love white headers, but kinda a pain ; used to carry a can of VHT with me in the car.

 

Well do you drive it. Whats presentable

 

Yes, painted white headers are very hard to keep looking good - my former Crosley was always looking rusty/burnt. but, some options I looked at, but never did : Ceramic coating IS available in white if you look hard enough - and your coating source is willing to order it specially. Also, the shiny aluminum ceramic coat actually goes on white, and is buffed to make it shiny - and silver - if you leave it unbuffed you're white !! Also, painting any color over ceramic coating is much more long lasting - I've done that on race cars.

But, white headers look so cool its worth the hassle !!

My coating source is: Component Coatings in Saginaw, Mi (989-746-0891)- if you can't find anyone to do the above.

 

I used to have some industrial silver/gray alluminized heat paint. It lasted for years until my headers rotted out. Dont know if it came in white. Now, I just use black BBQ paint and dont worry about it.

 

i use to run white headers on one of my 55s also. had a used set of headers that had set up for awhile and were rusty. had them sandbasted them vht them white. ran them for about 5 yrs no real problems.light coats of paint. not one big thick spray.no engine oil leaks and kept the timing dead on, so the engine didnt run to hot.also had a flip glass frontend so that aided in touching them up.only reason i took them off was because i bought chrome ones. as far as up keep. id rather had my white ones back on instead of chrome. lots more work to keep them pertty!!!

 

If you do a search, there is a whole thread on my old hot rod. The history right up to the present is there. No, I do not own the car. The car belongs to Steve Hill of Brighton, England. The photo is one that Steve sent to Pat Ganahl and is in Pat's Lost Hot Rods book. Steve is in the process of doing a period correct restoration as the car was on the cover of Hot Rod in 1962. I wish I had the car back, but it has a good home with Steve.

 

Dean,
Where did you get the white aluminized coating back then? Is it an aircraft finish of some type, or what? Can you get it today still - versus the widely popular auto ceramic / powder coating places?

All I ever remember was stuff like VHT, which was mostly a waste of time and $$ given how easily it got greasy and finger printed. Gary

 

Try Googling metal spraying to get a start. It's not that complicated but real aluminum is melted with a torch and actually sprayed with compressed air onto the surface of the headers. It was not smooth like paint. It actually is rough to the touch and didn't stain that much at all. There were a few places where some rust came through at the flange joints and a quick spritz of VHT made them look new again. The process is used to build up worn surfaces on large pump shafts and such so that it can be turned back down to the proper dia. They spray more than just aluminum but aluminum gives the desired look.

 

I love white headers! A buddy of mine had them on his T, Just make sure your engine doesnt leak oil and you'll be fine... His did and he was always trying to clean them off.

 

In 'the 60's there was a place on PCH by the Huntington Beach power plant that did sand blasting and metal spraying. The surface of the headers was like 100 grit sand paper. I was at a show in '65 and across from my car were the Cedarquist Brothers with their Bantam fuel altered. The headers were aluminized like mine. They were wipeing a white powder on the headers that made them look great. When I asked what it was they told me it was cornstarch. It worked good over oil stains. I don't know how they came up with that, but it worked.

 

I used white VHT header paint on mine followed the break in instructions on the can and I'm very happy with how well they are holding up. I even had to drive 20 miles or so in a down pour, afterwards I took it to the carwash and a little bit of scubbing with a scotch brite pad and they still look great,

 

I painted a set white way back when...had greasy fingerprints all over by the time I got them on...never again...

 

Ran white from 1968--1975, back then it was called "Aluminized spray".

 

http://swaintech.com/race-coatings/race-coating-descriptions/white-lightning-exhaust-coatings/

 

If you want trouble free white headers have them porcelainized. That's the finish they put on old stoves and as long as you don't chip it, it looks great.

 

We do ceramic coating for our headers, The "Shiny Aluminum" is not white when it goes on, it is dull silver. The polishing (Which is not buffing, but tumbling in a specialized wet media) is what makes it not only shiny, but more heat and corrosion resistant as it closes up the pores

Dean, there was a place in Stanton that we used to use. I think it was called Quicksand. I had used the corn starch trick as well, but also VHT "Aluminum" header paint over the sprayed headers worked very well too.

yep, Aluminized was what we called it too - although it wasn't Pure White, had a bit of a silver tinge to it.


If you have seen the Gasser 57 Chevy that Woody's built, I did the headers for that in White