I’m not partial to the look of a bare stainless steel exhaust underneath my XK120. Just doesn’t look “right”. I’d like to paint it black – any sort of black – before it goes back on, but I tried doing this once before some years back and the paint immediately started flaking off – especially at the flexible portion even before it went back on the car. I’m not looking for the final finish to look pretty, just something that will last.
Advice please, from those who’ve been down this road before?
Oh yeah. But apparently stainless steel is a different animal altogether when it comes to prep and throwing the requirement of withstanding high heat complicates things still further. An internet search leads me to inconsistent replies all over the map. I figure others on here must’ve painted their stainless exhaust headers, mufflers and tail pipes in the past so I’m wondering how they went about it and how the results have held up over time.
And I don’t know if the oil+heat trick works with stainless. Maybe worth trying no experience with any of the above, but I am sure that paint directly won’t hold up at all. Too shiny and nothing to hold on.
Thank you, I like that link. That would work for me but instead of sanding, I’d opt for the easy way out by taking the pieces to the local blasting shop to rough up the surface.
Done it may times, athough for lower temperatures, in chemical plants and distilleries. To get anything to adhere to stainless you need to provide an abraded, totally oil free, surface. To do that, abrasive blast the substrate to “near white metal”. The technical reference for this is SP10 (used to be SSPC10). Once spotlessly clean and suitably abraded, you will need to use a coating that is suitable for the temperature involved. I would suggest that you look at this silicone product from McMaster Carr, which is recommended for stainless steel.
I don’t think so. The abraded surface provides the “tooth” that you would get from a primer. But I would follow the instructions provided by whoever makes that hi-temp silicone based paint. I wrote dozens and dozens of paint specs for chemical plant projects. About the only time we ever painted stainless steel was the interior of a silo and I don’t remember why we did that. The reason you spec stainless steel construction is so you don’t have to worry about corrosion and paint. I always spec’d stainless steel boiler stacks for that reason.
I’m intrigued by Sur-Fin Chemical’s video showing a piece of 304 being blackened. I think I’ll try that first. I imagine there won’t be as much of a stink upon first firing it up and subsequent heat cycling. Again, I’m looking to minimize the bright/ shiny stainless steel look so maybe I’ll amend the title to “How to darken stainless steel” instead of limiting myself to just painting it.
Common threads in all that seem to be well thought out recommend sanding to give the paint something to grip. a thorough cleaning and degreasing, and using a self etching primer.
no experience with any of the above, but I am sure that paint directly won’t hold up at all. Too shiny and nothing to hold on.
