So my wife was out of town Friday, and most of the day today (Saturday) visiting her parents. This allowed me to try out this VHT header paint, that is advertised as also being a ceramic coating. Not sure that this stuff will reduce under hood temps or not, but I wanted my manifolds to be a little more subdued rather than shiny metal. Should also help protect from rust.
Before I painted my manifolds, I did a trial run on a piece of random exhaust tubing I had around.
First I put the piece in a bucket and scrubbed with acetone to remove dirt, oils, and grease.
Next I tried etching the metal with phosphoric acid to help with adhesion of the paint. I'd never done it before, so I followed the directions on the jug (I picked this stuff up at Home Depot). I put 1 part phosphoric acid to 4 parts water in a spray bottle, and sprayed all of the metal tubing. Per the directions, I then let it sit for 30 minutes, then rinsed it off with water (I also used dish soap to try and get any oil or grease I may have missed early). Nothing visually changed with the metal tube after the etching process, so I'm not sure if I did it right.
Next was back in the bucket for a final acetone bath. Let it dry and got it ready to paint. You have to wear latex gloves when handling the piece to be painted, because the oils from your skin will contaminate the paint and it won't bond properly.
I applied 2 coats of primer, and then 3 coats of the black stuff. For each paint session, I applied a light coat, then waited 10 minutes before applying the next coat.
Next was the curing process. Note: The paint is very easily damaged before it's cured. The smallest bump and it chips off. The directions on the can say to bake at 250 degrees for 30 minutes, and then let cool for 30 minutes. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes, cool 30 minutes. And then finally bake at 600 for 30 minutes and let cool again. My oven only goes to 550 degrees, so I baked the last step for 40 minutes.
All in all, the test piece came out pretty good once the curing was complete. The coating seems pretty durable once cured.
I repeated the process for one of the turbo manifolds. Acetone bath, phosphoric etch (again, I didn't notice much change), wash with dish soap, rinse, and another acetone bath.
I went a little thicker with the coatings this time. I did 3 coats of primer, and 5 coats of the black coat (until the can was empty this time).
Primer
Black coat

Have not had a chance to cure it in the oven yet. Wife called to let me know she's on the way home, and I didn't want her to catch me with exhaust parts baking in
her oven.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk