painting my chrome exhaust

Was thinking I'd paint my Vance hines chrome exhaust because the chrome doesn't look very good anymore because of the battery acid that got on it. Do I have to put primer on it first? Obviously I need high temp paint. I don't think they make high temp primer? I'd miss having that cool blue tinge on my exhaust.

VHT used to recommend using the white paint as a "primer" if the colored paints were to be used. But for black or grey or white, no primer used.

Bottom line: I used paint on mine for decades because that's what they came with. It's a royal pain in the ass to maintain and has to be redone every year or two. You have to strip the headers to bare metal each time, paint them, then use a heat gun to cure the paint or it will flake off.

If it was available back when I had them, I would get powder coat to save all the work. just my opinion.

I'd look at something like Ceramic coating or similar. You'd have to really go to town to prepare the surface if the paint is going to adhere, at a powder coat place they would have the equipment to sand blast it. Back in 1979 I had an aftermarket luggage rack on my Honda 500 that started to rust due to poor quality chrome. I spent ages sanding it and then spray painted it first with red primer and then flat black paint, it looked fantastic, after admiring it I retired to the house to let the paint dry. I returned a few hours later to admire my handiwork and was met by a sight that for a second my brain couldn't process, the paint was hanging off in curls like wood shavings and large expanses of chrome were revealed. In the end I just had to rub the rest of the paint off and settle for the iffy looking chrome finish. Perhaps modern paints adhere better than 70's spray paint, but you would have to do something to get adhesion, perhaps some sort of acid would work if you are on a budget and thinking of the cost of some rattle cans of exhaust paint vs. almost the cost of a new V&H to get it ceramic coated.

Maybe I'll eventually just get a new exhaust. Right now I'll just keep it as is.

I dont think you can use powder coat on an exhaust. Maybe the silencer but not the headers.Too much heat.
Getting chrome off is a bugger.You need one very strong blaster. You can just rough it up (with a blaster) to give paint something to key on.Its much easier.
I agree with redhawk4 and look at ceramic coating. Or having it rechromed. Though neither of those options are cheap.How much does a new V/H exhaust cost?

I had this Bassani header pipe powder coated silver about 12 yrs. ago for about 60.00

this is how it still looked last year when I sold it




This is the other half of the pipe that I did not have powder coated, chrome peeling away all over, if I would have knew better, I would've had the back part coated too

They have high temperature "ceramic" powder these days. The exhaust is sandblasted first to give the metal some tooth for the paint to stick to. My 750E exhaust is at the shop right now getting done. Can't wait to get it back.

davido wrote: I dont think you can use powder coat on an exhaust. Maybe the silencer but not the headers.Too much heat.
Getting chrome off is a bugger.You need one very strong blaster. You can just rough it up (with a blaster) to give paint something to key on.Its much easier.
I agree with redhawk4 and look at ceramic coating. Or having it rechromed. Though neither of those options are cheap.How much does a new V/H exhaust cost?

like 300 but I don't feel like dropping 300 on a new exhaust