Lemme tell y'all a story... Once upon a time, a boy named Drew bought his first set of headers. They were uncoated, plain, and painted black. He installed them on his ridiculous SBC Bravada project, fired it up and rejoiced! But then lo! The smoke started, then the peeling, and then the slick black paint on his nice new headers was but a pile of gray cornflakes. And the boy lamented, for his nice new headers looked like old rusty headers within a couple of days. Then somebody told him "that's completely normal" and he just accepted it. But damnit, he thought, if someone had told him that in the beginning he would have stripped that non-header paint off his headers and painted the damn headers with header paint, as he naively expected a header manufacturer to have done. Many years passed, and and now our hero has bought headers for his ridiculous Windsor Maverick project. This time though, he will be consulting with his wise brethren, many of whom have dealt with this before. ... So. I bought these Summit headers, uncoated. Does anybody know whether Summit (Flowtech?) headers are painted with header paint, or are they just shot with some cheap low-temp spraypaint to keep the rust off while they're on the shelf? And if the latter is true, then I believe I should strip that junk off and shoot them with high-temp header paint, yes? Is it OK to use a chemical stripper such as aircraft remover, or should I sandblast or just scrub it off? Or hell, how about a blowtorch? Heat sure seemed to take that paint off real quick last time... I know ceramic coating is ideal, but I just need a low-buck solution for keeping the rust off, if there is such a thing. Thanks!
Eastwood used to make a product that worked pretty good for a couple of years, but I've never had any luck making anything stick past that.
You would think, now days, they would use high heat paint...but I doubt it. I too have experienced the flaking paint to much dissapointment....Every set of headers I've ever had, rusted, no matter how I prep them, or whatever paint I used...now I buy coated.
I'm having a set coated now with a combination aluminum/zinc....Client of mine has a business building the grates that go over the NYC public school system windows....We'll see in a coupla days
I have a set of Hooker factory ceramic coated,,, they are rusting,,, I liked your story! Hard to get good painting to not burn,,,
Chemical or mechanical stripping,whichever. I use mechanical, sandblasting. Find an oven big enough... and follow the directions on the can. I hve had header paint last for years doing it this way. Painting the headers cold just peels off heat is the key.
I wanna give VHT header ceramic paint a try. I saw a "how to" on another forum and the header came out looking great. You cure the paint on the engine, so no need for a huge oven.
Whatever paint is on these headers, brake cleaner takes it right off. I need to find something else though, else this will get expensive...
Well that didn't work for mine....burnt right thru at the heads, turned out a kinda gun blued look, started out orange but still looks better than rust, and yes I put on three coats.
