Anyone paint their exhaust?

[itsonlygeorge]

The previous owner welded together an exhaust system and it is starting to get rusty, especially around the welds. I want to drop the exhaust and grind off the rust and paint the whole thing to keep it from continuing to rust. I have been trying to find some VHT Hightemp primer to use along with a VHT hightemp paint.

Anyone have any experience painting an exhaust system? Am I safe to use a self etching primer thats not high temp rated? I can get the VHT hight temp paint, just not the primer.

[dereliiict]

Pretty sure that you do not need primer...

[aegul44]

primer not needed. Just spray vht flame poof any color of your chose.

[itsonlygeorge]

Hmm. Ok cool. I thought you needed to primer it first.

[dnguyen1963]

High heat BBQ paint from menards or Walmart works just fine.

[itsonlygeorge]

The real trick is going to be removing the exhaust without breaking the hangers... that and freeing the worlds rustiest nut/bolt on the compression sleeve.

[Porthos]

I have ceramic coated my DP on my MINI and that is about it.

[TobyB]

The 2000f VHT works pretty well on exhaust.

As with everything paint, the prep is the hardest part.
Exhaust paints don't do well over oil...

You MIGHT try just painting it in place, rusty, then
let it sit for a few hours to outgas- then go drive up the
steepest hill you can find to try to bake it on.

t

[itsonlygeorge]

I'm putting in a new gas tank this week so I have to remove the exhaust anyway. I figured I'd paint it while I have it out and remove any rust and replace the rusted out bolts. I'll have to let it sit overnight when I paint it... and drive with just headers...

[Ether-D]

The paint should dry pretty fast. I'd paint it as soon as it comes off then do the tank and then put that shit back on before you drive it. It'll bake on real nice.

[AndrewBird]

In my experience, even high temp paint doesn't hold up tp the heat. I used VHT paint on my exhaust manifolds, had them sand blasted first so they were spotless and then even baked them in an oven and they still flaked after the first few heat cycles.

Why do you care if the exhaust is rusty? Surface rust isn't going to hurt anything.

[dnguyen1963]

In my experience, even high temp paint doesn't hold up tp the heat. I used VHT paint on my exhaust manifolds, had them sand blasted first so they were spotless and then even baked them in an oven and they still flaked after the first few heat cycles.

Why do you care if the exhaust is rusty? Surface rust isn't going to hurt anything.

I hate rust. Period.

[mr2peak]

Surface rust turns to real rust eventually..

My tips and muffler are VHT black to cover the surface rust, no issues. Just doesn't look as nice as it could.

[itsonlygeorge]

I hate rust. Period.

Most of the rust is on and around the welds which is not good. It's on the verge of starting to flake so it needs to be addressed before the winter. Whatever they use to salt the roads up in Maine eats away at cars and I don't want to leave any rust on the car if I can help it. The exhaust had weld-thru primer sprayed on the welds which has caused the rust. None of the other sections of the pipe are really rusty.

I'll post some pics today after I get the exhaust out. I should really order stainless compression clamps as well, but they are $15 a pop. Those bolts are rusting up really quick considering the exhaust is only really a year old. It took a breaker bar are air-tools to get them off yesterday. I covered them in anti-seize for the moment.

I am not planning on doing the headers since they are cheap OBX ebay headers. Its not worth the time it will take to remove them and paint them. I wish I had the money for a set of racing dynamics headers and an i head swap (and a better exhaust setup)....

[AndrewBird]

The thing about exhaust stuff is the heat evaporates any water so things don't rust as fast as say, body panels. However, salt on the roads will accelerate things.

But still, the paint is going to just flake off and you will still get rust. Only way to beat it is to have a stainless exhaust made up, but that gets expensive.