Looks great ,Mark! But your right that a lighter colour would be easier to see potential cracks in future. Regards Chris Gardiner
Sent from my iPad > On Feb 16, 2017, at 5:37 PM, Mark Langford via KRnet <krnet@list.krnet.org> > wrote: > > 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 > > <finished_headers.jpg> > _______________________________________________ > 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
