Stock Manifolds

[xrcr]

Anybody ever paint exhaust manifolds with any luck? I sand blasted mine and am thinking some high heat paint will last for a little while. I guess if nothing else they aren't all rusty.
Thanks,
Jim

[ray_mcavoy]

Hi Jim,

I've sandblasted and painted the stock exhaust manifolds on several of my restoration projects. I used Seymour high-temp 1200 Cast Blast on a couple sets and a similar high-temp gray spray paint (I forgot the brand name) on a few others. Both looked really good for the first 4 or 5 years or so, then they started showing some little rust speckles. As a quick fix, I sprayed some of the paint into the cap and brushed another coat on over the rust speckled areas. The touch-ups blend in good and seem to last a year or two.

I'm getting ready to do a few more manifolds and this time around I'm going to try the Factory Manifold Gray high temp coating made by POR15 and see if that holds up any longer.

[xrcr]

Thanks Ray,
Did you rattle can all of them or brush any. I'll be honest I'd rateher spray but don't know if a brush on would be better paint.

[ray_mcavoy]

Hi Jim,

The Seymour Cast Blast is only available in rattle cans (as far as I know). For the initial application, I sprayed 2 or 3 coats on the freshly sandblasted manifolds. It was a few years later that I went back with a small brush to touch up some of the spots that were showing rust speckles (using the same paint sprayed into the can's cap).

The POR15 Manifold Gray that I'm going to try on the next set of manifolds is brush-on only. The instructions on the can say any brush marks will disappear once the paint has dried & been heat cured. I'm thinking this stuff will give a bit thicker film build than the rattle can paints that'll hopefully last longer.