Instead of painting high heat parts.

[PhilW]

I work in a Jag rest. shop and we're always looking for ways to keep the original factory look for a longer time. Another solution to painting high heat parts - brake parts, exhaust, etc. - is to have them plated. Most of the cost of plating, say chrome plating a bumper, is the time to hammer out dents, polish the surface to mirror finish, plate with copper, polish again, plate with nickel, polish again, then plate with chrome. If you have parts like cast iron brake drums that you want to keep from rusting, try cad plating. If you do all the prep work, which is basically sand blasting, all they have to do is electro-plate a coating on the parts, wash them off, and give them back to you. Less time, less cost. There's a number of other metals you can use to give different finishes or colors. My boss had an entire exhaust header into a side pipe done for his racing XKE, with a nickel finish, and it's held up perfectly for years. I once bought an XKE that the PO had the original exhaust manifolds chrome plated. The original finish was black glass enamel. By the time I bought the car, the chrome had turned black from the heat (like motorcycle pipes) and they now look like the best original black glass headers around.

Some parts must be re-machined because you're adding a thin layer of metal, like brake drums, but drums should be re-cut anyway. There's a number of metals that can be plated to give different colors. You can even have them gold plated if you have deep pockets.

Phil.

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

You can even have them gold plated if you have deep pockets.

I don't think I'm tall enough to have pockets that deep. :shocked: