Exhaust pipe coating

Hey guys, a while ago I got some pipes made up for my chopper, but the build is taking a bit longer then I thought and I havent got the money to Chrome them at the moment.
They are Mild steel and I was wondering if anyone could give advice on what to coat them with in the mean time to protect them from rust and preserve them so I can chrome them later on when I got the cash?
A matt plack coating would be cool but which one? I dont want to spend heaps on a coating ill just remove in the future though.

thanks in advance

-Benny

If you just want something temorary any heat resistant paint would do. Getting a decent finish on Chropme later is all down to how well you can polish the pipes. You might want to look at coatings like HPC. They do a finish that looks like nickle plating that is very cool and wouldn't need so much effort as you would need for chrome. So if you use heat resistant paint now you could get the pipes cleaned and HPC coated later.

as above, but HPC is heaps cheaper than chrome and is good looking, real cheap VHT headder paint..

good on you.

Thanks for the advice guys. Might just go for that cheap header paint in the meantime eh. haha

Benny if your going to use the VHT Heat the pipes first before coating them This will make the paint adhere real good mate.

Thankswoody, do I have to worry about getting much of a coating on the inside of the pipes?

I usually paint the outsides first then use whats left to do the inside, It will make them last longer and prevent rust build up while there just sitting around.

Great thanks.
These pipes have some interesting bends at the outlet end and are pretty damn long.
Hopefully i can get a bit of paint up them.

Woody wrote:

Benny if your going to use the VHT Heat the pipes first before coating them This will make the paint adhere real good mate.

yeah good idea Woody, especially at this time of year. I put my fender out in the sun before I sprayed the clear.

just to throw it out there im big on can paint, dupli color, i use it on EVERYTHING. its funny because im a carpainter by trade, it seems to stick to everything, as long as you clean and half decently prep it, also with my engine, i have a bridgeported rotary that i have painted the engine block in normal 2k car paint, good quality stuff, it get extremly hot, and is still sticking. all that high temp crap u buy from repco is usually a rip off in my opinion, just as good as normal can stuff, anyway i also found that caliper paint has a higher heat resistance

Yep. I've used ordinary gloss paint on engines before and did'nt realy have any bother. I'd expect pipe, which are thin, toi get a lot hotter than a watercooled engine though. Air cooled heads get pretty hot as well. When I've used ordinary paint on barells before it smoked for a while and then settles down and was fine.

+1 on the VHT.

I've used it on several sets of pipes and it works well.

Pre heating and using the hi temp primer works wonders.

jmho