WHITE Ceramic Coating???

[RestoCreations]

Has anybody tried White Ceramic Coating??? I am building the uncrushed Kirkham from the movie ironman and it had white pipes. The pipes that came with the car are just props and i am going to replace them with new kirkham headers and sidepipes. I like the way the car looks with the white pipes, but would like a coating that is tougher than just paint. So, has anybody had their pipes ceramic coated in White? How are they holding up? Was it worth the expense?

[cobrajeff]

I had mine powder-coated in White by Airborn Coatings. Jet-Hot refused to do White, saying it was not durable enough (this was 13 years ago, don't know what the situation is today). I am happy with the White, but it's a bear to keep clean. The first time I got caught in the rain, the coating yellowed. I didn't know it then, but I believe now I could have scrubbed the yellow tranish off with Simple Green and #0000 steel wool. I painted over the powder coating with VHT white header paint, and re-spray with VHT about every third year.

Jeff

[FWB]

Originally Posted by RestoCreations

Has anybody tried White Ceramic Coating??? I am building the uncrushed Kirkham from the movie ironman and it had white pipes. The pipes that came with the car are just props and i am going to replace them with new kirkham headers and sidepipes. I like the way the car looks with the white pipes, but would like a coating that is tougher than just paint. So, has anybody had their pipes ceramic coated in White? How are they holding up? Was it worth the expense?

I had the white ceramic done on my pipes. the coating is not smooth, it has the texture of sandpaper, about 60 grit. while it may look good at first the dirt will lay in the crevasses. i ended up painting them black and putting a gloss clear over that. VHT makes a high temp clear. i take the position that my car requires enough maintenance already why add to the mix with white pipes. so black they are.....

[RestoCreations]

I hate to change from the look from the way it was intended, but i might have to go with the stainless pipes and headers.

[rms427]

I have had my pipes aluminized twice in 40 years. This is the process of spraying on molten aluminum. It ends up snow white but very rough. Most stains burn off. You cannot buff off a stain since it then turns aluminum color. I redid them once after someone placed a sneaker on one of the pipes and it burned in a permanent stain. I should have just sprayed VHT white over it since the the second aluminiztion wasn't done as well. I now just spot touch up every now and then with the VHT. Most of the pipes have not needed to be touched up. The pipes have about 60,000 miles on them.

[RestoCreations]

Where would i have this done and how much did it cost the last time you had them sprayed?

[Dirty Harry]

I like the white pipe look. It goes well with my white stripes. Unfortunately, I have never found a coating that would give me a nice, clean, flat white look that the vendor would warrant as maintenance free and to stay nice looking. So, for many years now, I've just re-painted my pipes every summer with white VHT header paint. Once a year does it. I'd probably have that much work in trying to keep coated pipes white. And, a rattle can of paint only costs $5.95. Plus, when someone burns the tongue out of their sneaker, leaving a crusty deposit on the pipe, a little sandpaper and a quicky touch up is no problem.

[Don]

Swain Technology, upstate NY, has a pearl white ceramic coating, which has the texture of medium to rough sandpaper, I painted mine with high temp black. The texture, according to Swain,is due to the ceramic particles in the coating

From Swain's web site:

" Like all of Swain Tech’s coatings, White Lightning™ is a performance improving coating. What makes White Lightning™ the best performance exhaust coating?

1) White Lightning™ really is ceramic so the material is a superior insulating material.

2) White Lightning is applied much thicker than any of the cosmetic coatings. White Lightning™ is applied about .015” thick compared to about .002” thick for the cosmetic coatings. Because White Lightning™ is the best insulating material and it is applied thicker than any other coating, White Lightning™ offers performance improvements that cannot be matched. "

http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10969

[csx wnab]

this is at three years. granted, after one year i had stain issues, so i scuffed them with scotchbrite and shot them with VHT hi-temp flat white and boy after two years they look cool. got that off the race track patina. so in a nut shell, i used the ceramic coating as a base then finished with the VHT. wacked i know. but it works...........see.

[rodneym]

CSX wnab,
Lookin good! Great look on that ride.
rodneym