I'll need to get the headers heat coated on the Lyndwood. I'm sure they just used white hi temp paint back in the day but who does the best heat coating today?
Lately we have had no luck with the white header coating. The next set I do will get your normal silver coating...then scuffed and shot with white header paint. The coating should keep the heat down just enough to keep the paint nice. Clark
years ago between VHT paint years and the current Jet Hot coatings we used to get the headers and manifolds "aluminized" It lasted very well and came out white. It is not smooth. It has a textured finish. It's actually an industrial process that melts the aluminum and sprays it onto the headers. If you want white headers that last you might investigate this process. It wasn't that expensive. It just got over run and forgotten by the current coatings. It fell out of favor.
I've evry happy with my Jet-Hot coated headers. Noticed they weren't a vendor at the York NSRA show this past June-but then neither were about 40% of the other usual suspects so I am not sure it means a lot.
I've got a friend here in Mississippi that's bringing back the aluminizing procedure. The early MG T-series exhaust manifolds were aluminized but we've been having to go to the JetHot procedure since no one was able to do the aluminum coating. If interested PM me and I'll give you his name and address.
I've always believed that the best way to keep them from overheating is to do both the inside and the outside...especially with cast iron exhaust manifolds, but supposedly makes a difference with headers too.
I always wondered what happened to the coating. It was like they coated the hedders with well-worn 36 grit sandpaper Biggest drawback was it's ability to attract a greasy hand print. But was a really interesting finish and you could actually tap them with a hammer for clearance without spiderwebbing half a tube like with ceramics.
Had the headers & exhaust pipes (w/mufflers) ceramic coated. Not cheap, but it seems to hold up great.
The nice thing is that it stands up to Gum Cutter and it can be touched up with VHT white for stains etc.. It's not a difficult process. I understand that all that it takes is an OA torch and shop air. One of the local body shop/hotrod shops used to do it for the local rodders. A machinist friend told me that the system was actually designed to build up large expensive worn aluminum castings for re-machining to factory specs. Somebody came up with the idea of using it as a decorative finish for headers and manifolds. I still have one side of some block huggers that was done over 20 years ago.
Hi temp powder coating works good. Not as costly as ceramic. Very durable and oil and other crap comes off pretty easy.
We have it here at work......2 kinds..... a flame spray,(oxy-acetylene) with aluminum wire fed into the fire.........and plasma spray, for rebuilding worn surfaces prior to machining back to specs.
Another vote here for aluminum coating with good old BBQ paint from Home Despot. The coating REALLY soaks up the paint so it takes quite a few applications, but once it's painted it hold up well and touch-up is a breeze. I got the ones for my '64 Falcon done recently for $100
I don't know about the powdercoat. I do powdercoating near full time and have never found a high temp powder that I can stand behind. It all looks great but doesn't have any real durability. It's so bad that I don't even offer high temp powder work anymore, just the regular 450 degree stuff.
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