Header Painting

I was going to have my header powder coated this winter but the only guy in the area is outrageously expensive. What is the best paint to use for this?

A fellow I work with bought one of those powdercoat it yourself setups. After playing with it a couple times he got the hang of it and now he turns out pieces like pro! His limiting factor is the oven. Obviously you can't powder coat anything you can't fit into the oven.
He bought an old oven at a garage sale for $25. But it's great for all parts that will fit into it. Thought I'd share this with you didn't know if it would help or not.

Bud

if ur bike runs. go to autozone or pepeboys(or a place like) they have this new header paint out.. looks like it will work really good.. ur motor has to run tho. as the header get hot it bakes the paint on...


on the custom header i made for the 03 250ninja, i used sum 1200 paint for autozone. held up great. i keep that bike in the redline everywhere.. dont go with anything less than 1200.. 500 wont last

I used hi-temp flat black bar-b-q paint on my header/muffler this spring. I was carefull with the prep, rubbed it down with alcohol etc. and gave it 4-5 coats. By mid summer it started to get ratty (rainy year) and now it looks like hell. So...back to wire wheeling it down again. Actually it's only the header with surface rust on the forward exposed surfaces. I think that I'll have to spray on a rust killer after wire wheeling, then repaint. I'm going to research this a bit before I do it all again. I don't really want this to become an annual event.

Post edited by: luvmykaw, at: 2005/10/24 21:46

here u go after about 2-3-4-5k miles of rain and hard riding

Just bought a Vance and Hines for my GPz off ebay, and it's on the way. Problem is, it's chrome, and my bike is all black with red...well see the pic on the left. I need it to be all black. Should I wire-wheel all that chrome plating off, and paint it black, or chrome the whole bike to match the header? Really, I'd like it to be black, and i don't think painting over the chrome will work. Here's a picture of what it looks like:


Post edited by: CoreyClough, at: 2005/10/26 01:13

I'm betting John will know how to paint on chrome...if it's possible. As a youth, I painted on the chrome bumpers of my VW using rustoleum and its red primer. I just sanded it to roughen the chrome, then primed, and sanded the primer smooth before painting. It worked, for a couple of New York winters, then started to peel a little.

A wire wheel will not remove chrome/nickel/copper easily. scuffing up the chrome, like Ron said, might be your best bet, if you feel that paint will hold up on a hot exhaust system. I have been trying to get ahold of New Holland's exhaust paint, which they say is available through their dealerships, but unfortunately they are liars. They do sell the same color, but it's not the same as far as heat resistance and durability. The reason I started looking for New Holland's paint is because of a 1984 Ford 1210 tractor my dad owns. The paint is from 1984 on the muffler and is still intact. Incredible if you ask me. Unfortunately, that paint is not sold in their stores. Here's some things you might want to consider if the bike is not ridden in the rain too much. Chrome is extremely durable, so I would leave the finish on the pipes just for the sake of havin a good solid undercoat. Then, I would look into "Black Krome" plating from caswell. you won't need to do any sanding, you won't need to do a lot of clean-up if the part is brand new, never been on a bike, and basically, it's pretty hard to beat the durability. Drawback, the chrome plating must be stripped from the underlying nickel plating. "How?" you may ask... simple, stick the thing in some chrome stripper. It's relatively cheap, compared to other plating solutions. I think the smallest amount you can buy is 3 gallons, and that will only cost you about $40.

Furthermore, you can get a caswell plug and plate kit to do your pipe, so there is no need to have the whole pipe submerged in a tank. you simply plug in the plating wand, dip the cotton end into your plating solution, then wipe it onto the part to be plated. simple as it gets. cheaper too! $30 for a plug and plate kit, but you are deffinitely gonna need more solution than the kit provides, so tack on an extra $11 for every bottle of extra solution you need. I am not sure of the surface area size of the exhaust to be plated, but I'd imagine buying the $30 kit and 1 extra bottle of solution would get the job done. then, you have a dark smokey chrome pipe, with the durability of a hard nickel plated finish.

I am going to use a plug and plate chrome system to redo all the little bits and pieces that happen to need it, on my G3SS-B. Of course,with that bike, I can't plate too heavily, every pound counts when you have a 10 hp bike! :laugh:

EDIT: I posted your quote from another post in my signature because everytime I see it, I LMAO. thanks!

Post edited by: john68, at: 2005/10/26 05:03

Thanks John, I apreciate your reply. Here's what it looked like on the bike it came off of:


Here's the bike it's going to go on:


If I left it chrome, then like I've said, it would look like a person with white shoes on an all black suit. Better have big feet with that get-up!!!:woohoo:

Gee, if it's chrome and looks nice I would leave it. But if you have to have black have the headers sandblasted. That'll knock the chrome off. Then you can spray on some Rustoleum 1500-degree bar-b-que paint. Mine's been holding up with no problems for 8,000 miles and over two years.

I shot the pipes with Rustoleum 1500 degree bbq paint, and the muffler can with DupliColor engine enamel (semi gloss ). Just sanded the p*ss outta the chrome....wiped them all off, and sprayed away. 2yrs, who knows HOW many miles, and plenty of midwest "liquid sunshine" and so far so good.

Hey, that's good to know! I just bought some rustoleum 1500 paint the other day, hoping it would outlast the duplicolor high heat. Looks like it might.