Anyone have any experience painting their header? I have an extra one laying around and am thinking as I have the black/silver top end on my '03' I might like to experiment with changing the exhaust color to black. I do know of header paints they sell in auto parts stores, I actually used one to paint the connector on my bike. Heat down there at end of header is not what it is at exit from cyclinder though. I have read of ceramic painting exhausts but know little to nothing about that.

Biggest concern is getting it to adhere to chrome and how well does it hold up to scratching and such. Also is it stable at the temps of the pipe, that is, if it is burning off some chemical residue under the hood of car, that's different then right below you in open air. There is a reason they advise you don't heat temper them in your kitchen oven that you use for cooking your dinner.

Look into ceramic coatings..

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 09/16/20 at 12:05:34:


Some days man, you sound like what goes on in my head.

I am going to look into ceramic painting in my area. So what I am readng from Ruttly is chrome needs a complete strip. I was hoping that a rough-up and maybe some paint might be sufficient. I posted last week that a whole Mac system is available in black for $250, including header. Would probably buy the whole thing from them and try to sell muffler to recoup some of the cost.

I have to believe that the time to strip and buy paint and do it all would make it worth just spending the money. In the end I wanted to install a slash-cut Voodoo like it currently has only in black, so I would be buying a new muffler also. I had hoped to maybe paint my muffler also, but down at the rear the temps and such were not a concern.

Doing a wrap, which would have some benefit, had consideration, but
in the end was not look I was thinking of.

I sandblasted a header and painted it with ceramic exhaust high heat paint, it was a header that I used to weld in an oxygen sensor port so I could use a fuel/air meter for jetting my carb.

I cured the paint as directed by starting the bike and only running the bike in small doses to get the paint to cure gradually - if you had a large oven it would be easier.  You can also use the sun and put the painted header in your car or a box to help with the curing.

The paint held up OK for a while - but a few times of being caught in the rain and the paint started to look bad and began to fail.

The baked on glass/ceramic coatings are far more durable.

With your comment about going to a hot rod shop I had this thought of walking in just when they are prepping parts for coating in a primary color blue.  Hmmm.  Do it I say.  😎 🏍