I just bought a set of Hedman 88300 painted hedders and I was thinking about ceramic coating them myself. Techline Coatings sells the stuff, it seems fairly cheap and easy to apply. Has anyone had any experience with this stuff? Is it worth it? And If I did this myself how would i go about coating the inside of the headers?
Will they sell it to the general public? I know you will have to bake it on in a oven. IIRC, its like 600 degrees for an hour. You also need to polish the headers when you are done. Most coaters use a vibritory polisher which is like a big shaker with ceramic beads. The coating itself will be dull and abrasive when it comes out of the oven. The people we deal with on a industrial level does coat the insides of headers but would not elaborate on how it is done because it is kind of a trade secret. Might be better off sending them to somebody like jet-hot. Hope this helps.
The coating that you are talking about is like their cermakrome which is not available to the general public but they have another product called black satin that does not require baking in an oven and is sold to the public. It air dries and cures on the car with exhaust heat. That's the one I was looking at (sorry shouldve been more specific.) It sounds like coating the inside is out of the question. I have thought about sending them off, I know its worth it, but the $$$ is a major issue, so if I dont do it myself i'll probably just leave them.
I have never used that particular brand but have used high temp krylon to paint headers with. Its bar-b-q paint good for 1200 degrees. It is available in silver or black. From my experience, this stuff scratches pretty easy until it is cured on the car so I will paint a couple of coats then use a oxy/acetylene torch (on a very light setting) to kinda pre-cure the paint before you install on the car. It holds up really well and wont tend to turn gray after long use. Also works best if you bead blast the header first, but if you dont have access you can wipe them down real good with acetone and be fine.
