HrdRockA4305

Ok guys, I bought 2 cans of VHT 1500 degree flame proof paint today and coated my headers and Y-pipe with them. I love how it looks, I got the non gloss silver color. I honestly could have done a better job, but I'm really short on time. I got most all of the shipping paint off with a wire brush and a cordless drill, but some spots I just couldn't get to and didnt have any sand paper around. So anyway, heres what they look like after I moved them inside to the garage floor. They're getting installed tomorrow, and I'll keep posting updates on how its holding up.

Not a major deal, but I figure one guy's experience with pictures and stuff might help out somone else down the road doing the same thing. If it turns out good, everyone will have it here to see and try the same thing. If it turns out bad, everyone will know what not to do and have details on why. Figure its time I do something on this board with some substance, not just always giving my opinions :lala:

ME Leigh

The easy way to get the factory paint off is to us carb cleaner or other solvent, it makes cleaning them pretty simple and easy.

kfoley

Cool, i'd like to see how it works out. I've heard good and bad things about coating the headers yourself. Hopefully it turns out good for you, and good luck on the install...

Mark A Shields

Yeah keep us updated, I'm thinking of trying it too. Getting the aluminum color though.

titeride85

I was thinking about the POR-20, but keep us up on it. I may change my mind. I am in Dekalb, but my sister lives in peoria. I have been meaning to get down there soon. If you want to meet up sometime, private message me with your e-mail. Good luck!

84TAProject

I painted mine the white color. We did it after all the paint burned off, and then painted them, but my father forgot to mask stuff off, so now I need to do some touchup work and get some new hi-po wires. Oh well. They look good, and stand out against my orange block (its a 1971 motor, might as well keep it the color from that year).

bluegrassz

iTrader: (3)

What brand headers and Y-pipe is that? Is it hooker or hedman or what.

kfoley

They're heddman. Check the sig.
"Headman headers/Y-pipe (have them, not on the car yet)"

bluegrassz

iTrader: (3)

Wasnt trying to be stupid, just dont read everyones sig.

Oh yeah. thats "hedman" with one D and one A.

HrdRocka4305
Did you weld a o2 bung on the y-pipe. What is you plan for your o2 sensor?

kfoley

Thanks for setting me straight on the hedmans, I must have been really tired (posting at 1:30 in the AM leads to lots of mistakes) and sorry if I came off short, didn't mean it that way, after all I was tired.

HrdRockA4305

Yep they're hedman's. Man it took FOREVER to put those suckers on! But we did it, and it sounds great. I'll try n record a sound clip sometime. I'll take a picture tomorrow as our "day 1." Anyway, notes on the coating so far. It can be scraped off easily during installation, but maybe if I heat cured the paint like I was supposed to it wouldn't have been so bad. Its also very porus, and soaks up grease from your hands. That made for some smoke when we fired it but its about gone now.

Like I said, I'm gonna take a few pictures tomorrow, and continue to do so every couple of days along with saying how long I was driving n stuff. OK my power just flickered, we've got a storm hitting right now, I need to shut down!

bluegrassz

iTrader: (3)

what about your o2 sensor? Where did you put it?

firbird

My edels I have I sprayed them with some 1500 deg paint from the part store, and its been almost a year and its holding up very good and I am very glad I did that, they really don’t even have rust on them yet and when I did it I put it in the oven for a few hours to bake it on I prolly could have let them back on from turning on my car but o well, compared to my y pipe I did not do its pretty drastic.

HrdRockA4305

OK guys, "Next Day" pictures! All the gunk you see on them is just grease from our hands, none of its burn through. They've only got about 45 minutes of driving time on them at this point.

The 02 sensor was relocated to the straight pipe that is now in place of the cat.

I'm not gonna attach a forward engine shot because you can't really see anything anyway in it

HrdRockA4305

Drivers side

HrdRockA4305

Other side, you can see the plugs from the diverter box that don't really do anything anymore I still need to take out the no longer functional AIR hoses that snake around the back of the engine, and take the smog pump off. Its not hooked up to anything, its just kinda there but still has the pulley on it. Time to go belt shopping.

HrdRockA4305

Figured I'd stick my arm under the car and get a shot of the y-pipe as well. The 02 sensor is right behing the outlet of the y-pipe, and seems to work just fine there.

HrdRockA4305

One more thing. My Cats last brick was so busted up, there were a chunks like this just rattling around. Every now n then, the car would just get on a thing for about half a day and run like CRAP and have NO power at all, especially about 2500 RPMs. I think that every now n then, one of these chunks must have got lodged into the end of the pipe and damn near choked the poor motor to death.

Hey! You can see a reflection of clouds in my headlight pocket! Cool! :lala:

Thats all for today guys! Where would be a good place to get some images hosted so I can put more than one in a post and not take up so much bandwidth on Dirk's server? Angelfire sure dosen't like me using them. I'll take another set in a few days.

bluegrassz

iTrader: (3)

nice pics.

I think I will go with the same setup. I will just extend the wire to the o2 sensor and relocate it.

Did you have to do any mods to the A/C bracket? What about the Y-pipe did you have to weld any on it besides at the straight pipe?

Hg

I know it's a bit late to suggest it, but my friend has used easy off oven spray on alot of stuff and it strips the paint right off. I haven't actually watched him while he did it, but i've seen before and after him using it on stuff and I can tell ya that it rips right through the paint on his valve covers. For those who haven't started their projects yet I thought I'd just suggest that...

What do you guys think, when I get headers my plan is easy off oven spray to strip the paint off, then spray it with some high temp paint. Once that dries, hit it with a heat gun for awhile. After that, install those suckers. What do you think?

brodyscamaro

i painted my hedmans with the same stuff. i havent installed them yet that will be done next weekend this weekend is carb i just bead-blasted them to get all the paint off. it worked pretty good

Camrs89

Yeah, that took forever to put those hedders on, huh dave? Oh well, I was preoccupied with the :hail: 70 GTO sitting in the guys yard. Hey, Thats my cat brick. I pulled it out! Its mine!! Lol :sillylol:

HrdRockA4305

Yeah, paint stripper and a heat gun would have been 2 good things to use. It never even crossed my mind! Oh well, thats what you get for doing all this during finals week. BAD IDEA!
I'm done now, had Psych 110 and Financial Accouting 120 today... I'm fried.

Going to the track tomorrow, time to back up the SOTP improvement with some numbers! Also some more pictures to show how it'll hold up after a 96 mile drive to the track, make some passes, and drive home! That'll be a nice test.

bluegrassz:
Never touched the AC bracket, but we didn't put the brace back on that goes to a stud off the least manifold bolt. Y pipe needed no modifications.

88Bravo

If you use oven cleaner, let it dry and then I would clean the metal. That stuff is kinda harsh on metal. Have you thought about tring to go to geocities? It is on yahoo. You might have enough room on there to post some pics. Looks great, I may end up doing the same when I get home. Thanxs for the updates.

bluegrassz

iTrader: (3)

HrdRock4305

Thanks for all the info.

Sorry about all the questions. I think you have helped me make my decision on which headers and y-pipe to get.

I had a pair of hedman block huggers on a 50 chevy truck. They sounded awsome. But I sold the truck before I could see how they lasted.

Good luck. Thanks

HrdRockA4305

Hey, thats the whole point of this thread. I want everyone to benefit from what I'm learning right now. Thats what this board is for!

BTW - went to the track tonight.... New thread called something like Yeeeeah headers rule! Go check it out for my results! They're worth seeing!

Camrs89

Dave, how did that paint hold up to last night?? Still there? My new of headers I want, I may paint or have coated. Later

HrdRockA4305

Its been raining like hell all day, haven't even lifted the hood. I did when we got to the track, after a dialy commute, picking up a freind, and a 95 mile drive up nothing was burnt or melted. We'll see what It looks like when I pop the hood tomorrow and take a few update shots.

Camrs89

Well hey, still better than mine uncoated. Oh well I still need to sell them for larger headers.

HrdRockA4305

Still dark and rainy..... maybe tomorrow

HrdRockA4305

New Pictures! Its been a good 300 miles now, and 1 week. Friday night I drove it 95 miles to the quad cities and 95 miles back, and made 3 1/4 mile passes at the track while I was there. Here's what they look like now:

HrdRockA4305

And the other one. They sure don't look any differen't yet! Its also been raining like crazy all weekend. From Saturday morning till sunday afternoon we had 3 inches of rain.

HrdRockA4305

Lets not forget the Y-pipe

gruveb

Looks pretty good to me. Keep the pics coming.

Camrs89

Have you re-routed the belt yet. I would do that ASAP

HrdRockA4305

Nah not yet. I do need to though. But the pump won't seize I'll bet, all we did was take the outlet hose off. I just wanna get rid of it cause its not doing anything, and its another 10 lbs. and one more accesory pulley I don't need.

HrdRockA4305

OK guys, its been 2 weeks now. I was under the car monday, and noticed that some of the coating is gone from parts of the y-pipe on the back side that wouldn't show in the pictures. It looks like it came off of the parts that I didn't get the shipping paint all the way off of. If I woulda used paint stripper, this probably wouldn't be happening. But the rest of it looks just fine, there is still no bare metal or rust anywhere. And for all I know, it might have been that way this whole time because you can only see it from the drivers side, I always was looking from the pass. side.

I didn't bother taking any pictures this week really because honestly, it looks the same as it has since day 1 still. So thats my weekly update: no change.

HrdRockA4305

I think thats what I should have done. Oh well, so far so good still.

Camrs89

Hey Dave, whatcha been up to? Havent talked to you all week. You know, girlfriend home for summer...But hey plan to make the June 8th Meeting. K?

brodyscamaro

my 1500* VHT paint has lasted good for 3 days now
i kinda baked it one using oxy acetelene(sp?) with a heating tip just passing over it quickly for a few minutes then let cool then a little longer and so on

kfoley

You weren't messing around when you "baked" it on were you?

brodyscamaro

nope
i didnt leave the torch in the same spot for more then a half second and turned the header over quite often and didnt do the same piece for more then a minute
man thats a lot of "ands"

ME Leigh

I baked mine in the household oven on 550 for like two hours or so, what ever the directions call for.

HrdRockA4305

So, if nothing else, it sounds like we can all agree that VHT 1500 paint is a good product. I'm happy its even lasted this long, since I didn't bake it on like I should have.

Camrs89

Hey theres nothing wrong with it, I sprayed that on my LeMans manifolds and it lasted 2 years before it started to come off. I think it still has paint left on some areas.

88Bravo

I will let you guys know how the 1200 deg paint holds up. I put three coats on mine and baked them in the oven. When I get my computer online I will upload pics.

titeride85

bravo, what brand of 1200* paint are you using?

HrdRockA4305

Ok, its been 5 weeks now.

The headers haven't changed a bit, still look exactly like day 1.

The y-pipe is another story. I had the car over a "pit" yesterday and took this shot. Some of the coating is chipped off, and the collector is starting to rust through a tiny bit. I don't blame this on the coating though. For some reason, the shipping paint was really hard to strip off of this part. I should have used some chemical stripper instead of just the wire brush, but I didn't have the time. So, to those planning on doing this: take some paint stripper to the pipes first! Other than that the VHT is holding up great. Like I said, the headers still look just like they did on day 1.

0utlaw

I have used VHT on my headers since 1985 or so. When I first got them, I sanded off the original paint, and hung them from wires and double coated them. I then let them dry a day, then plastic bagged them ( to protect them as I installed them), slid them into position and ripped the bags open to attach, then removed the bags. No scratches and looked nice. As time goes on, stones coming off the front tires and road sand make it necessary to recoat the forward areas. They have gone thru years of drag racing and street use, but no winters. Pulling them off to recoat is a bear of a job so I just touch them up with a brush or spray.. It must work good- it's 2002 and the headers never rusted.

Camrs89

Sounds like someones done this a couple times!!!