Exhaust System Ceramic Coating

My exhasut system needs to be ceramic coated, does anyone have any recomendations for someone in the DC area or any recomendations of a better way to finish the "bundle of snakes".

I believe Jet Hot has a shop in the Philly area in case
you can't find someone closer.

MikeD

I would recommend Airborne coatings. They have several locations. You can call and see if there is any weight. I have had them do my exhaust as well as several steel brackets. Very nice.

I will be getting my system coated in the next few months.
I had hoped that this thread would have generated more discussion because there are a lot more players than the two discussed.

I had a system coated with Jet Hot some years ago. As with all the vendors, it looked nice when new but didn't hold up. I sent it back to Jet Hot at least twice in about 4 years to be recoated.

I've had the same problem with Airborne. It's been back for 1 recoating after 3 years. The second time, the coating flaked off after a week of running.

I swore I'd never do another system in mild steel because of the corrosion problems encountered when the ceramic comes off. You put a ton of work into fabrication only to have them rust, usually from the inside out, in under 8 years. The exterior had some areas of light surface rust and many areas of discoloration. Yes, both companies supposedly coated inside and out.

A quick search on the net comes up with at least 5 or 6 companies doing ceramic coating. I've heard good things about both Swain and HPC but have never used either of them.

I'm leaning toward Swain this go around. Their coating is not a 2 mil thick coating as are most of the other ceramic coatings. They do not coat the inside of the tubes. Their coating is primarily for heat reduction purposes. Their literature lists it as a 3 layer .015"- .020" thick coating. It only comes in white.
It is supposed to cut radiant heat by 50%. I can live with the white color if it is that good and doesn't flake off in a year.

I'd just as soon not get my headers coated at all. They are stainless and the natural heat coloring on them looks "right". But I can't put up with the tremendous amount of heat that comes from the pipes when the car is at a standstill or running slowly.

The 351C and ERA bodywork leave a very small envelope for the exhaust system. The heatshield on the bodywork deflects a vast amount of heat, but it is only on the upper flat portions of the bodywork.

Swain lists their coating as "functional", not cosmetic. I'm all for functional and don't really want a polished or chrome look. The slip fits into the collectors have to be masked off so no coating is put there. +.030" on the diameter would equal no slip fit!

Anyone had any experiences with either Swain or HPC? Both companies have been around a long time.

Swain Tech Coatings

HP Coatings

http://www.airborncoatings.com Came highly recommended to me through 3 or 4 people via email. Never used them but I will try since they are close to me.

Jay, you might look into that fiberglass tape wrap stuff. We used it on the Bizzarrini 5300 Strada that went to Monterey last summer. You dampen it with water, wrap it on, and wire it in place with aircraft style wiring. In the Bizzarrini, the exhausts travel through the fenders and doorsills (next to the fuel tanks- great engineering) and they used to get very hot. This helped a great deal.
The downside of the fiberglass tape wrap is that it does not look very good. No matter how well done it is, it does not have the clean visual appeal of the coated headers. But it does work- the heat will stay inside the headers where it belongs. If you're interested, give me a call; I will hook you up with Kendall Merritt at GT, he can give you more info. I am going to use this stuff on my headers; so many people have had problems with coatings that I am reluctant to try it.

Hey Guys, I have talked with quite a few hot rodders that get their pipes ceramic coated and they all told me that a good job will have to be redone every 3 years if you want to keep them looking show quality. I have been told that the s/s bundle of snakes can be polished like motor cycle pipes and will only turn blue like the bikes do, because of the smooth finish. I immagine that this would have to be done by a professional to look good after they have the heat put to them for a while. Joe /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Hi Guys, I have used both Jet-Hot & HPC, and found that HPC seem to provide a much nicer finish for all those decorative bits. The Jet-Hot parts can be brought up to close to HPC finish with a fair bit of effort & metal polish - but why bother when HPC will do it for you ?

The headers are HPC, but I have only got a few hours up on the engine to date, so its way too early to draw any conclusions about durability. We shall see !

Kind Regards,

Peter D.