Exhaust Manifold coatings

[jft69z]

I have a job coming in the shop soon & the guy wants his cast exhaust manifolds blasted and coated. They were done years ago, maybe with an 'Eastwood' type of product.

A quick search showed good results with POR 15, Eastwood, VHT, Jet-Hot, etc. Anybody have real world experience with something that works well, is durable, and won't show signs of surface rusting for a long time? 

Something that we can purchase and apply here is fine, but not opposed to sending them out to a company that does it either. The key here is to make sure they last a long time, and cost is not an object with this gentleman.

 

Thank you!

[MC1of80]

Joe, we have had good luck with the Eastwood exhaust paint, hi heat powder coating, and yes, BBQ paint. The headers on "Big Red" were done in 2016ish with BBQ paint after sandblasting. 

[cny first gen 71]

I got some ceramic header paint from a guy at Carlisle a few years back. Lightly sand blasted the new headers and sprayed them good. They look great now all I gotta do is get them put on and see how they hold up. So I guess I'm no real help 🙃 but look great right now sitting in the spare room.

[420ponies]

Joe ,  I bought the Eastwood kit  for my cast manifolds . I have not got that far yet, but planning on it soon. Someone else on the forum let me know about it. They looked really good. I bought the brush on and the spray can. Says to brush on first ,then spray over.

[Dtret]

In contrast to what Tom said. I did my 71 manifolds with Eastwood. Not impressed. I used spray can. 

[jft69z]

I had to order some stuff for the current job in the shop, which also incidentally has exhaust manifolds that need a little work. Talked it over with that owner and he said go ahead.

I started doing some research and found a bunch of good info on Mark's favorite resource (the Corvette Forum), and a lot of people had great results with the POR15 paint. Looking at the directions for both, I chose the brush on vs. the spray can, seems like it may work better. Popular opinion seems to say that one can should be good for a few sets of manifolds, but I'll soon see.

I'm still open to suggestions though, as the other car still isn't here yet, and he may be a bit more particular about the longevity of whatever coating goes on.

Thanks to all who answered so far, very much appreciated!

 

62 Impala. Paint & body are VERY nice, but they dropped the ball on the rest of the finish work & details of the plumbing, electrical, hardware choices, etc. I think we're ordering a Dakota Digital dash tomorrow now too. The snow ball effect is in full force here, 😁.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a heater hose bracket they 'fabricated' (same type for the fuel line too)...... The list goes on & on...

[willie]

This is a heater hose bracket they 'fabricated' (same type for the fuel line too)...... The list goes on & on..

 

Thats funny Joe my eyes went right to the gas filter and the heater hose bracket.  I think the rest of the car is pretty cool!!!

[jft69z]

13 minutes ago, willie said:

Thats funny Joe my eyes went right to the gas filter and the heater hose bracket.  

That's just the tip of the iceberg Willie. Wiring is a mess, even though they used a new harness. All sorts of crappy, mis-matched nuts and bolts, plumbing is a mess, missing hardware in places, etc.

Just found they used exhaust manifold gaskets on one cylinder head, and just RTV on the other side. That type of stuff all over the place. Under the dash is another debacle, but I'll get to that when I install the Dakota Digital instruments.

[cny first gen 71]

Love 62 chevys not crazy on the paint sceam and yea lots of detail needed and that fuel filter would be the first to go. All this talk got me thinking I wonder if the headers will work with the heads I have so I dug one out and tried it. The other headers I have will not work with the angle plugs. Good news these work 😁 can't get socket on some but that's ok. Thought I throw in a picture too.

[Rob Peters]

I used the POR exhaust coaring.  I can't say that I feel it worked as well as I expected.

rob

[Chevy Dave]

I used VHT Flame Proof cast iron gray on my exhaust manifolds 10 years ago and it is holding up well.

[Leghome]

That 62 looks a lot like a friend of mine had redone just after ole red was completed. He passed away a few years ago and his car got sold and I do not know where it went. Maroon and silver 62 Impala very very nice car

[TheBMan]

@jft69z Joe, not sure if you remember, but I sandblasted and coated my manifolds using Eastwood's high temp exhaust coating. I brushed on two coats and sprayed the last coat. Let them dry overnight and then install and start the engine to let the exhaust heat cure them fully. Very durable and they still look gorgeous. People comment on them all the time at car shows. Here's a link to the Eastwood site: https://www.eastwood.com/factory-gray-hi-temp-coating.html

Left to right in the photo: Original, untreated. After sandblasting. Coated.

[jft69z]

5 minutes ago, TheBMan said:

@jft69z Joe, not sure if you remember, but I sandblasted and coated my manifolds using Eastwood's high temp exhaust coating. I brushed on two coats and sprayed the last coat. Let them dry overnight and then install and start the engine to let the exhaust heat cure them fully. Very durable and they still look gorgeous. People comment on them all the time at car shows. Here's a link to the Eastwood site: https://www.eastwood.com/factory-gray-hi-temp-coating.html

Left to right in the photo: Original, untreated. After sandblasting. Coated.

 

Thanks Bryan.

I ended up using the POR-15 coating based on a bunch of reviews on the Corvette forum. Sandblasted them, 2 coats with 24 hours between and then cured them in the barbeque grill for about 1.5 hours at 385 degrees (was only going to cook them for 25-30 minutes, but someone came to the shop, we got talking and I forgot about them 😁). I could have just installed them and cured them in the car, but chose this route instead. In fact, that car just left here today, the owner was real happy with how they look.

I'll be using the rest of that can of POR-15 on the next car in the shop.

 

[TheBMan]

8 minutes ago, jft69z said:

Thanks Bryan.

I ended up using the POR-15 coating based on a bunch of reviews on the Corvette forum. Sandblasted them, 2 coats with 24 hours between and then cured them in the barbeque grill for about 1.5 hours at 385 degrees (was only going to cook them for 25-30 minutes, but someone came to the shop, we got talking and I forgot about them 😁). I could have just installed them and cured them in the car, but chose this route instead. In fact, that car just left here today, the owner was real happy with how they look.

I'll be using the rest of that can of POR-15 on the next car in the shop.

 

If the results are good, that's all that matters. Sounds like the process is very similar with the POR and the Eastwood stuff.

[jft69z]

20 minutes ago, TheBMan said:

If the results are good, that's all that matters. Sounds like the process is very similar with the POR and the Eastwood stuff.

Yeah, just follow the directions and most people seemed to have good results. Time will tell though....looked good when it left here though. Hopefully it lasts a real long time.

[TheBMan]

Shop looks great, by the way, Joe.

[DragCat]

On 10/15/2023 at 6:53 PM, cny first gen 71 said:

 The other headers I have will not work with angle plugs. Good news these work 😁 can't get socket on some but that's ok.

This made me laugh, I have 4? spark plug sockets for my ARH headers on my crate. 

[DragCat]

15 hours ago, jft69z said:

Thanks Bryan.

I ended up using the POR-15 coating based on a bunch of reviews on the Corvette forum. Sandblasted them, 2 coats with 24 hours between and then cured them in the barbeque grill for about 1.5 hours at 385 degrees (was only going to cook them for 25-30 minutes, but someone came to the shop, we got talking and I forgot about them 😁). I could have just installed them and cured them in the car, but chose this route instead. In fact, that car just left here today, the owner was real happy with how they look.

I'll be using the rest of that can of POR-15 on the next car in the shop.

And yet you keep saying how you hate working on cars 

[jft69z]

17 minutes ago, DragCat said:

And yet you keep saying how you hate working on cars 

I do.

But it seems people want to keep bringing me their cars. At least they're nice cars, and the people pretty much let me do whatever I want to them. It's nice when they're not penny pinchers and money isn't their main concern.

You should see the crap I turn down.  Someone recently asked if I would replace the floors in a dump truck...uhhhh, it was a fast and hard NO.

[DragCat]

2 hours ago, jft69z said:

You should see the crap I turn down.  Someone recently asked if I would replace the floors in a dump truck...uhhhh, it was a fast and hard NO.

Was it a real "dump truck" or just what you lovingly refer to F150's ? 🤣

[jft69z]

28 minutes ago, DragCat said:

Was it a real "dump truck" or just what you lovingly refer to F150's ? 🤣

Worse, it was some type of Chrysler product I think...

[Rob Peters]

They look great Joe!

rob

[jft69z]

35 minutes ago, Rob Peters said:

They look great Joe!

rob

Thanks Rob, 

Here's the before & after pics of the '62. Hard to tell, but there was about 130 hours labor in that job total, with all the mods, corrections, wiring repairs, Dakota Digital installation, etc. The after pics are a bit early ones, I didn't take pics yesterday with it all finalized (I also mist coated the front of the radiator trim black, to help blend it into the rest of the core support, looked way better from the front view.)

 

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

 

F

[MC1of80]

Way better! Great job Joe!