Wow, that looks great Mark...nice job for sure Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Langford via KRnet" <krnet@list.krnet.org> To: "KRnet" <krnet@list.krnet.org> Cc: "Mark Langford" <m...@n56ml.com> Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 4:37:27 PM Subject: KR> headers are finished
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 m...@n56ml.com http://www.n56ml.com _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
