Painting headers (now with pictures!)

I've got a new 2:1 for my gsx and it's got a bit of surface rust and scratches and looks a little worse for wear, but absolutely nowhere near as bad as the stock 2:2 headers i have got. I was considering brass wire-wheeling the headers and then painting them with high temp paint.

My concern is regarding curing, is it really worthwhile/needed? or if some brands you do and other you don't really need it, what would some of the brands be where you don't have to worry about curing the paint. Because frankly, short of going to an industrial place I won't find an oven big enough to cure these babies anywhere nearby, let alone someone who would let me (i know the missus wouldn't, even if they DID fit our oven).

Last edited by mike-s on Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I did mine with a wire wheel and another thing that looks like a wire wheel but it's made of plastic. Go to a hardware store, it's a paint and rust removing wheel or something like that. They came up like this before paint, it was a PITA getting into some places, I used sandpaper on some of it...



I used the blue header paint, and just ran it for a while at idle to cure it and then took it for a ride, the exhaust cures it nicely. You can see the finished product here:

tag 032.jpg (103.7 KiB) Viewed 3227 times

Nice, that is exactly what i was hoping to hear. I bought the same plastic paint/rust stripper wheel from supacheap as well as a small (1.5 inch) bronze wire wheel. I already have a large bronze one (somewhere) but figured the combination of the small wheel and the plastic one ought to do the job nicely.

I had a feeling running at idle would be sufficient and that is exactly what i was planning on doing. Next step is to source a matte black or silvered high temp exhaust paint (the latter would look nicer given it's a naked bike) and organise with a neighbour to run an extension lead from the hallway next to my unit TO my garage so i can run the wheel as i don't have bloody power in my garage , and there's only so much time i'm willing to invest in using a wire brush *grumble*.

looks good mate might have to do the same to mine one day

Good news, one of the people on the strata group is good friends and lent me her key which can open all the unit security doors. made headway on the headers (no pun intended) and in only an hour i got the bottom 1/3rd looking pretty shiny, i just need to smoothen it out a bit and get rid of as much of the rust from the deep recesses of the pitting as i can.

The funny thing is the only bit of eye protection i could find was a bunnings-special pair of tinted wraparounds, which made things a little interesting. I'm just glad i have a 75watt globe in the garage so i could SEE at all. Might be a bit easier in daylight tomorrow.

Was a busy bee today, have 99% completed wire wheeling the exhaust and will give it a final once over tomorrow to make sure i've gotten it all done neatly. Once i've done that, the paint will follow.

after wire wheel and the nylon strip-disk.


Fully painted with VHT flameproof & drying


mounted, from the front


from the side (excuse the crap view, i was too close to the wall)


Currently got a rather hokey setup in place so i can try to cure them to some degree. Next Thursday i'll be going here to pick up one of these.

full pics here

Ran it for about 10 mins with a slightly high idle (varying between 1500 and 2100, but mostly at the lower speeds) and just as i was finishing up i noticed ever so slight bubbling in the paintwork on the headers and am hoping to hell it all goes away once it cools down. I have no idea about my chances though.

Picked up a reverse cone shorty muffler today, quite a nice build quality too.

Daytime pictures to come tomorrow as i didn't get home anywhere close enough to in time

I reckon you should have left the paint to cure overnight and then baked it with the motor mate. It may have been a little 'green' and not liked the heat from the reverse.

Looking good though.

I have thought about wrapping my zorst headers or black ceramic, all sounds a bit wanky though. Much rather drop em off every now and again and give em a polish

I left it for about 4 hours to cure when they say to leave it for a minimum of 60 minutes as it becomes touch dry in ten minutes and safe to handle in an hour. Any time after it has dried is long enough before you start curing it.

On the Vehicle

* Paint must be completely dry before curing
* Run at idle for 10 minutes
* Cool for 20 minutes
* Run at idle for 20 minutes
* Cool for 20 minutes
* Run under normal operating conditions for 30 minutes

Off the Vehicle

* Paint must be completely dry before curing
* Heat to 250°F (121°C) for 30 minutes
* Cool for 30 minutes
* Heat to 400°F (204°C) for 30 minutes
* Cool for 30 minutes
* Heat to 650°F (343°C ) for 30 minutes

As to what happened, maybe you are right & they didn't clarify the instructions quite enough, or perhaps i didn't get it quite right and went slightly over time?

Well i didn't get to work on the bike in time to do daytime photos thanks to a neighbour needing a hand with something, but here are the ones I got after fitting it tonight.



Sounds alright too.

Ok, second half decent heat-up (the second one i did was cut short) and the paint seems to be staying pretty soft still, which sucks kind of majorly as i've got that protest ride to go to tomorrow. I think i might take my time and go a bit slower on the way there to try and avoid any stone damage to the paintwork, and stop every 10 minutes or so to try and give it some more heat cycling.

Hopefully that will help heat it up enough for it to set a bit more. This is getting pretty freaking annoying

Got video. Just need to make sure there's not a carb leak still, bloody bikes, nothing but trouble.