I have heard that you can ceramic coat the inside of headers/lakepipes and then chrome the outside to protect the finish from going blue and ruining the finish. Any truth to this? can it be done?
I hope so! The coating guy I talked to at World of Wheels said that it would still change colors, just not as bad... but I hope that isn't the case! It would be great if they could find a way to stop that.
They make a ceramic coating now, that looks almost like chrome. Its nearly as shiny. You might want to go with that. I don't see how they could do both, but I don't know much about it.
I want to see a picture of this "chrome ceramic" and where can you get it. I am gonna get my HEader on my T coated. Also where can you send stuff to have it coated? just black or Silver?
The ceramic chrome stuff I've seen comes out looking similar to polished aluminum. They may have improved it since I first saw it a few years ago though.
Jet Coat is a reputable ceramic coating vendor and is used by many header manufacturers to coat their products before sale to the public. Coating the inside holds the heat within the tubing which menas more horsepower and less engine compartment heat. Coating the outside holds even more heat in the tubing and it can be buffed to look like highly polished aluminum -> close to chrome. The icing on the cake is that once coated, the tubing does not rust, corrode, or discolor.
i am trying to find this place that is just north of Nashville that does that sort of thing but with a different medium than ceramic. an ex co-worker buddy of mine told me about last year and we can't remember the name. but this shit is impenetrable. able to withstand temperatures up to 2600 degrees. so headers and other parts will not change color no matter what. they do alot for racing engine builders because the coating dissipates the heat better as well. if i can remember, or find it, i'll report back to you because i want to get mine coated as well. and i remember it not being that much to get done either. you could spend a hundred bucks on generic headers and get this done to them and still not spend as much as you would for a nice set of already coated headers.
The reason that putting the ceramic coating on the inside helps is because as CharlieLed stated, it keeps the heat inside, the ceramic is an insulator. The bluing or straw color on chrome is oxidation, which occurs more readily at higher temps. So if you can keep the heat from the chrome, it will not turn colors as much. There is nothing magic, the ceramic is just functioning as an insulating material to keep the header pipes cooler. The ceramic coating also has benefit of providing corrosion protection, a nice side benefit.
Jeff, Performance Coatings is here in OK. I am friends with the owner. He'll tell ya the truth if it won't work. His name is Chuck Simpson.
yep they're still gonna go blue. it isn't quite as bad, but blue nonetheless. I saw some miracle polish in one of the scads of chopper mags lying around here that claims to remove it, but who knows what the long term effect on the chrome is (and I am not sure I would test it on my fenderless hot rod first,if you get my drift) however,Speedaddicts headers are looking pretty spiffy still, and I have seen jet hot sanded and buffed to a high luster (and it seemed to stay that way...) but dig this...Blue is beautiful. a properly tuned motor should only blue up about 4 inches or so after the head. it's like a naturally occuring fade job. windex the shit out of them immediatly before starting the motor up for the first time (to avoid finger prints which boil off and turn piss Yellow) and roll with it,Baby! it's like the paint burning off pontiac exhaust ports. it's gonna happen. it doesn't mean it looks bad.
I think the ceramichrome is the same stuff Edelbrock is using on thier new manifolds-it was called that now they call it "permastar" it's pretty bitchin stuff. my only bitch is it looks like 2 part epoxy underneath it (where it was machined,you can see the layers) and it can chip off. but it will certianly stay shiny on a small block that has had the piss run out of it for long periods of time...
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