painting headers
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Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,854
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From: Des Moines, Iowa
painting headers
i bought a set of hooker headers and i would like to paint them silver because they are black painted. can i paint these and not have it flake off and look bad, will it also hold heat in better? and ideas?
oh yea these are on a 77 f150 4x4
oh yea these are on a 77 f150 4x4
Freshman User
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 30
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painting headers
in my experiance with any type of exhaust paintint, you must first take them down to bare metal and then give em a high temp paint or powdercoat them. Other wise your gonna flake, i dont care what anyone says, painting over whats on there right now will just cause a mess unless there is something new on the market.
Posting Legend
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 30,255
Likes: 37
painting headers
Paint won't hold at all. You can get a set of headers ceramic coated at:
Jet Hot Coatings
Tech info- 1-610-277-5646
Orders- 1-800-432-3379
It aint cheap tho. It is better to buy your headers coated from the factory if available. The process is of course cheaper in large lots.
Jet Hot Coatings
Tech info- 1-610-277-5646
Orders- 1-800-432-3379
It aint cheap tho. It is better to buy your headers coated from the factory if available. The process is of course cheaper in large lots.
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,323
Likes: 2
From: Montana Territory
painting headers
I have only seen black high temp paint. Its good to 1200 degrees fahrenheit, your exhaust manifold won't go over 800. You can have a chrome shop plate them for you. I don't know what that will cost though. I doubt that you would like the 'mexican chrome' paint color anyway. I did that to my rear bumper and it looks alright but I wanted to keep it stock and that was my only option, not bad for $15.
Posting Legend
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 30,255
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painting headers
Every time I have seen painted headers or chrome ones they look bad in short order, rusty and/or discolored quick. That high temp paint may work on a BBQ but on headers it fails.
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Senior User
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 120
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From: West Kentucky
painting headers
Having the headers sandblasted before painting helps hold the paint on better and then use 1500 degree heat paint, which is available in colors of black, white, orange 
, or clear. The paint will eventually burn off because of all the heat a header receives. Jet Hot coatings as is nice but expensive as Torque stated. Depends on how much you want to spend on your project. As far as the Hookers on the truck, I have a set. Putting the right side on was a wrestling match. The left side went very easily after I removed the front driveshaft, but I didn't like where the tube exited at. Right underneath the Transmission pan. To clear the driveline I figured that was the only place to go. If I buy another set, I'll strongly consider a set of fenderwell exits.
, or clear. The paint will eventually burn off because of all the heat a header receives. Jet Hot coatings as is nice but expensive as Torque stated. Depends on how much you want to spend on your project. As far as the Hookers on the truck, I have a set. Putting the right side on was a wrestling match. The left side went very easily after I removed the front driveshaft, but I didn't like where the tube exited at. Right underneath the Transmission pan. To clear the driveline I figured that was the only place to go. If I buy another set, I'll strongly consider a set of fenderwell exits.
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Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 2003
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From: Des Moines, Iowa
painting headers
is it possible to run duals without having to loop the drivers side over to the pass. side then back to the drivers? thats how it is now i think it sucks
Senior User
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 120
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From: West Kentucky
painting headers
In my application, I'm using the truck for mud drags so the headers will be open, but I'm still not exactly excited about the header exhaust heating the transmission oil up. Currently considering running some kind of exhaust pipe to the side the vent the gases away. Then you get into the problem of cross members, transfer case and front driveshaft in the way. When I took the old dual exhaust system off it was mounted as you described Texan. Unfortunately that is how I have seen all duals mounted in those years trucks. Find yourself a good exhaust shop close and go talk to them. Somebody that has been in the exhaust business for awhile should have done several of these through the years, headers or stock manifolds, and ran across this problem before.
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Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 2003
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From: Des Moines, Iowa
painting headers
i talked to a really good shop a while back and he said he could do it, but that was before i desided to run headers, so i was wondering if it put it in a weird position or something that maybe he couldn't do it the way i want him to.
Elder User
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 886
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From: Houston/Hope BC
painting headers
Confirming Eric here, there is no hi-temp paint that stays on I have ever seen either. The ceramic coating is the only thing I have seen that works, it is not very scratch resistant however, and expensive. White is the color of the day. An alternate coater is Polydyn.com to check prices (and a nice TEXAS family co., BTW!).
An old hot-rodder buddy told me when installing my headers to load up each tube (using good judgement, of course) with some grease when installing the first time... it melts and flows and leaves a carbon "coating" all through the pipe. It sure has seemed to work for me, my headers are over 10 years old and show some rust on the outside but have not rotted through so far.
An old hot-rodder buddy told me when installing my headers to load up each tube (using good judgement, of course) with some grease when installing the first time... it melts and flows and leaves a carbon "coating" all through the pipe. It sure has seemed to work for me, my headers are over 10 years old and show some rust on the outside but have not rotted through so far.
Posting Guru
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,214
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From: Minneapolis, MN
painting headers
I've poured ATF through the tubes before initial start-up to do the same thing. I don't think it makes much of a difference what petroleum product you use. Any type of grease slathered on a rag and pulled through with a string should work. Probably less messy than the ATF.
Last edited by macguyver; Jun 29, 2003 at 04:11 PM.
Elder User
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 886
Likes: 1
From: Houston/Hope BC
painting headers
Plain old vanilla general purpose grease. No lithium or moly or synthetic. I just pressed a couple of big wads around the inlet hole and mostly to the top side outer radius curve and let heat and gas flow do the rest. GL