Although I live in an aerospace town with lots of metal processing
capability, none of the four big "coating and plating" establishments do
chrome plating, so I contacted a reputable chrome plating place in
Florence (Graves Plating) about chroming my exhaust headers. The reply
back was "I'd ceramic coat them, and we don't do that". That's pretty
high praise for ceramic coating from a guy who should know.
Electroless plating was another viable option, and where I was headed,
especially since the place is local (so I thought I could get it done in
a hurry)....but then found that it would take from 7-10 days, and the
minimum fee was $195. Then there were folks on KRnet singing the
praises of Jet-Hot, and I'd heard similar stories over the years but it
was expensive and involved shipping. But I wondered if anybody in town
did something like that.
It turns out there's a large non-descript steel sided commercial
building that I drive by on my way to work every day, named "It's Not
Paint". Their main thing is sandblasting and powder coating. I've done
powder coating myself, so I've had no need to bother with them, but I
dropped in and asked a few things about their ceramic coating
process....how does it hold up, what temperature maximum, is it easily
removed to reweld if required, and how does it compare to Jet-Hot? He
said "It's the same product as Jet-Hot, but we don't polish it." It
cost $225 and, best of all, would be done in two days max. SOLD!
He only had two choices of color at the moment, black and gray, and
although gray appeals to me more, if I have to reweld a crack due to my
flakey welding, it'll be a lot harder to match a gray than a black, so I
went with black. Of course with 20/20 hindsight, it'll be a lot harder
to spot a crack on a black exhaust, so we'll see how that goes.
After seeing Jeff's post regarding coating the inside, that would have
been the time to do it, with new steel and the fact that I used a
stainless steel wire "tube brush" that matched the inside diameter to
thoroughly clean and polish the inside of the pipes (there was residue
from the mandrel bending process that needed to be removed if I were to
nickel plate them). That doesn't cover many of the interior weld
surfaces (because the brush couldn't get there after welding U-bends
together), but at least the interior of the pipes would be ceramic
coated. I found a kit that Eastwood sells to do the inside with
something called "Internal Exhaust Coating", but it looked a bit hoaky
with no visible way to keep the nozzle perpendicular and centered in the
tube, although given enough time and effort, I could design something
that would do that.
I probably could have ordered some ceramic powder coat material and done
the whole job myself, but the pipes have to be abraded first if you want
it to last. "It's Not Paint" does that. I also don't have an oven big
enough to cure it in (assuming it has to be cured like powder)....and I
don't know exactly what product they (or Jet-Hot) use, and wasn't brave
enough to ask.
I dropped it off Wednesday morning at "It's Not Paint", and they called
me on Thursday before lunch to tell me it was finished. Looks like I'll
be flying again this weekend, weather permitting.
See enclosed photo. No accolades required.
For more on It's Not Paint, see http://www.itsnotpaint.com/
--
Mark Langford
[email protected]
http://www.n56ml.com
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