Manifold Paint

[190E Matt]

Just a quick question,

As part of my engine bay cleanup I have bought some Halfords high temprature paint for the exhaust manifold. The instructions on the back of the can say I should only apply it to bare shiny metal?

Although it says that in the instructions, do I need to spend the rest of time preparing the manifold to such state or can I get away with just spraying over the previous original coat?

[GreenV8S]

The people who made the paint don't know what they're talking about, it will go over anything.

[Pushrod-Power]

GreenV8S said:

The people who made the paint don't know what they're talking about, it will go over anything.

clean metal i can understand but shiny!hows the paint supposed to key to metal that shiny.

[BB-Q]

Get a wire wheel angle grinder attachment, spend half an hour cleaning it. Your paint finish and durability will be much better for having no loose particles on the manifold which will allow the paint to flake off or create hot spots (why else do you think they asked you to clean it?).

[ScoobieWRX]

I would remove the exhaust headers, blast with my sand blaster filled with 100 grade Aluminium Oxide, blow it off and then wipe down with panel wipe to get any grease and crap off it.

Once that's dried they are ready for painting however i would use Camcoat Black Satin (i still have some left for my turbo) instead of the high temp paint. Spray using a detail spraygun with a No.6, 7 or 8 jet. 2 or 3 coats with each coat left to dry for an hour with a fan heater blowing on them in cold weather, or leave for 20mins till touch dry then bake each coating in the oven for an hour if you have an oven big enough

Looks good and gets a ceramic coating. Job well worth doing on headers!!

Here's a pic of the headers after blasting:



and after painting:



and another:

Edited by ScoobieWRX on Saturday 20th December 01:16