So I started cooking my headers in a big grill today, I painted with VHT header paint, did the cans too, and the curing required involves taking these up to 600deg for 30 minutes, the grill barely gets to 300. [bang]
So the paint is still soft, I am going to need to do another coat next week, need to wait 7 days for recoat, and then I need to cook these correct. I don't want to stink up the apartment or ruin my oven doing this, does anyone know what kind of shop I should be searching to see if I can use their curing oven? Google searches of my area come up pretty dry, when I start calling around tomorrow I just need to know where to start. I am not looking for paint just an oven to cook them in, for a fee of course.
Lastly, if anyone can tell me how bad these would let off fumes maybe I will cook them in the apartment, I just don't want to poison our future meals or end up with the fire department showing up, neighbors complaining, etc etc... If I can cook these in my regular oven without too much oder or fumes then I might just do it to get the damn project over with.
I scoffed when Jet Hot quoted me at $500+ for ceramic coating, now I am failing at cooking these and nicking up the soft finish just wishing I shelled out the money, it would have been so much easier to just let them do it. Now all I need to do is cook them, just need to find a place to do it at.
Part of the problem is the material you chose.
Your grill and your household oven will never get that hot, and don't use your household oven. Someone will end up hating you.
The headers should be hard enough to install and finish the cure. The cans will never get to 600 deg. If you want to stick with that finish take the cans to a powder coater and get them cooked.
Quote from: ducpainter on September 20, 2009, 04:42:09 PM
and don't use your household oven. Someone will end up hating you.
[laugh] probably very true...
I will call a powdercoat shop to see if they can hook me up with some oven time... if they can't I will probably just put them on and run them through the rest of the season, then when I winterize I will tear it apart and send it off...
What DP said.
None of what you tried will work. Even the JetHot will turn colors quickly, seing that it's not made to be pretty, it's made for cooling, period.
a lot of the guys here have tried the step by step by step process... and same result.
If you actually ride your bike, it will never look like it did the day you put them on.
Don't get 86'd from your place over a set of pipes.
You can't cure the headers by going for a hard ride for 30 minutes?
Quote from: Ducatl on September 20, 2009, 05:38:30 PM
You can't cure the headers by going for a hard ride for 30 minutes?
I let my bike idle for 15mins. But the header paint browned and looked like crap a few months later.
it's really not the headers it's the cans... I think the paint will hold up just fine on the headers, problem is the cans just don't heat up that much on the bike, Sil Megaphones they stay fairly cool even if I ride hard. I guess the smart thing would have been to paint the headers the way I am doing it, and then get a regular paint for the cans, instead I am using the high heat on both.
I could have left my headers alone, the paint was holding up good on them, for some reason it made sense to just strip everything. Lessons learned, just going to push through it and hope for the best. I can't get a ton of heat but I can cook them longer, I need to get the cans back on the grill for a few hours, then I am just going to ride it.
Oh, its the cans. Im not sure how hot yours get, but my cored stock cans on my S2R1000 get hot enough that you pull away your hand, but not so hot that you instantly get burned, so its not even close to 300 degrees. maybe 200.
It sounds like it is easier to just strip the paint and use regular bbq paint instead of the high heat stuff...