Painted Headers? How are they holding up?

[advDave]

Guys,

About 6 weeks ago I sold my BMW r1200GSA and went back to my roots, a 1997 Valk Std (I had one in 1997-2000 and sold it when I got married, kids, etc)

The Valk I purchased has 7900 miles on it and the original owner would trailer it to rallies and ride it with his wife.

I replaced the OE tires with Cobras, and the Vacuum caps  that were cracked, and the FD & Engine fluid (the coolant was done a couple of years ago, I'll change it this winter along with the clutch and brake fluids).

The bike is wonderful, and I couldn't be happier to get off of that Beemer.

My question comes because the previous owner "never rode it until it was good and warm - at least 180 degrees". Well, it has a thermometer on the engine and I tend to believe the guy based on the nice blue color found on the headers.

I'd like to sand the chrome down this winter and paint the headers black. I noticed a few of you have done this over the past year or two based on other posts and I thought I would ask how the paint is holding up. Any tips you all can offer would be welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks for making this community such a nice place to visit! Dave

[JimC]

Dave,
I have not painted my headers, nor do I know anyone that has. I have been a street rodder for years and I have never seen a set of headers that had been painted that held up. Yes, Eastwood and a few others sell high temp paint, but eventually you will be re-doing it.

With that being said, I would recommend that you powder coat rather than paint. I had powder coated headers on a built up Chevy big block and they looked like new when I sold it several years later. You can get them done in any color you would like.

Jim

[Disco]

I second the opinion on paint - unless you can get some REALLY heavy-duty industrial paint used for boilers/refineries, etc.

Re powder-coat, there may be some that will withstand the heat, but one of my local buddies ceramic-coated his Cobra 6x6 pipes in black and they are gorgeous.  I think it only cost him a couple hundred bucks.

[advDave]

Thanks Jim,

I've looked at powder coating and ceramic coatings and the cost pushes me up to the price of a new set of cobras or something similar.

My pipes have 18" glass packs in them now and I absolutely LOVE the "porsche" sound it makes. I was thinking of some truck stacks and paint.

I appreciate your input very much, and i'll look around some more on the powder coating versus ceramic versus paint.

When I finally do figure it out, I'll post the results. I figure it'll make for a good winter project.

[vanagon40]

May want to check with smokinjoe.

Look at this thread:  http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,1002.0.html

[advDave]

Thank you Vanagon40!

I was thinking something like that may do the trick. I don't mind the touch-up (we all like to detail our bikes, right) ?!?!

[JimC]

Dave,
I have to admit I screwed up, I meant to say cerama-coat, not powder coat.
I do not think powder coat will hold up either, the headers on my chevy were cerama-coat.
SORRY for the mistake.
Jim

[fstsix]

I had painted these pipes back in the 70"s VHT header paint, These pipes were Chrome and Blued bad sanded and LIGHT coats held up great and this bike ran HOT 1080 cc King Cobra motor W/ Darkside.  Sorry bad pic.

[Ricky-D]

On another recent thread I pointed out that Valkyrie pipes, the stock ones, are composed of a double pipe header. One pipe inside the other. It results in much lower temperatures on the outer pipes, the ones you can see and;  as a result of this nice feature the chrome stays nice and bright.

The point I want to make here is that as a result of a few scrapes on the pipes, I painted them with regular "run of the mill" silver spray paint (generic type) and the paint has shown no ill affects from the heat and the paint is still nice and  silver.

So my suggestion is that no special high heat paint is necessary and you can use any paint you want.

***

[Pete]

As some may remember the original Goldwings had painted exhaust and mufflers. A good high temp paint worked very well, if a good clean up and prep job was done before painting. Over time you will need to redo it to keep it looking sharp. Time and road crude will dull and discolor the paint. We redid the exhaust about 2 years/24,000  to keep it looking sharp. When Honda went to chrome, most of us were not impressed. The painted black was easier and cheaper to renew. After painting careful mounting and a short break-in procedure helps the paint cure. Start the bike and let it run for a short period of time (several minutes), stop the bike and let it cool. Restart, repeat process until the paint stop giving off smoke/fumes. Then ride and have fun. Remember we were painting bare metal, painting over chrome?? Usually a bad idea. Remove the chrome to bare metal then paint for best paint retention. Have fun, Pete.

[Challenger]

Just adding my 2 cents here, but don't be too quick to discount the pipes, (especially if they are stock) I have had very good luck with blue-away reclaiming header pipes, The headers on my I/S were blued when I bought the bike, with a little (a lot) elbow grease they now look like new. and have remained that way for 5 years. 

[advDave]

Thank you everyone!

The headers are stock, blued fairly bad when I purchased the bike. The previous owner had the "not so easy" glass pac mod done to the pipes and it looks like the fabricator did a very good job. I've replaced the vacuum caps and I still have a little "popping" on decel, the vacuum lines look good so it makes me wonder if the guy replaced the exhaust gaskets or not.

That's the driving reason for my question... being overly meticulous with my bike, I am planning to replace the exhaust gaskets and while I have the pipes off I thought I'd do something to the headers to make them look less like a rainbow than they do now.

I may try some of the blue away and see if it works, but otherwise I'll be sanding and repainting the headers.

Everyone's input has been very helpful.