Sidepipe Coating Preferences ??

[Kens67cobra]

What looks and performs better on sidepipes.
Jet Hot--Ceramic coating, or Chrome.
What are some advantages of either ?
Cost? Looks? Durability?
Thanks

[RedBarchetta]

Ken, a lot has been said here regarding ceramic vs. polished stainless steel vs. chrome. When considering cost, ease of maintenance and safety (i.e. HOT), the ceramic coating typically wins the battle. Cleans up easy, polishes easy and cools down considerably faster than the other two. You can't put your car cover back on the car after a 45-60 minute cool down with the stainless or chrome, otherwise you'll burn/melt the cover. Also, both stainless and chrome may blue after some use, and some are not always successful in polishing out these blemishes.

Some folks are hard stuck on chrome and that is fine, too. But I've learned that the ceramic coat is every bit durable and maintains a really nice shine when polished with various off-the-shelf metal polishes.

-Dean

[Lowell W]

Whatever this stuff on my pipes is, it isn't stainless and it isn't chrome. I guess it's aluminum...ceramic...something. Not Jet-Hot (if you do a search, I think you'll find a lot of negatives re. Jet Hot) but probably something similar.

The original stuff was kinda half-a$$ed and started rusting in between the pipes during the first year. I had the pipes (but not the headers) redone by LoKo Coatings in Chicago last year and they look great and seem to be holding up well. I can clean them with steel wool and chrome polish and am very happy with the whole deal.

Whatever this stuff is, it's probably very similar to what's available locally for you. I'd say the big variable is probably the prep prior to the application, so MY advice would be to check around with guys near you and have it done by someone who comes highly recommended.

Hope this helps,

Lowell

[jwd]

Originally Posted by Lowell W

Whatever this stuff on my pipes is, it isn't stainless and it isn't chrome. I guess it's aluminum...ceramic...something. Not Jet-Hot (if you do a search, I think you'll find a lot of negatives re. Jet Hot) but probably something similar.
Lowell

Mine a ceramic coated and I love them. It's interesting that you said that a search would find alot of negatives about it. I did alot of research before having mine done and I can tell you that I never found a single negative comment about it. Just did a search here and - same results.
Some of the places that do powder coating offer an inferior type of coating that they call ceramic but it's junk. That may be what you have, I don't know. If you go with Jet-Hot, HPC or any of the "Big Names", you'll get a quality product.

[Paul F]

My original pipes were chrome. Looks nice, but along with the other problems mentioned, they rust out pretty quick.

I'm trying stainless this time around.

[double ugly]

Hi Temp paint on the sidepipes is the cheapest way to go and easily touched up. ($16.00) It also provides an original look. Duplicolor has a ceramic based paint. Paint them yourself and take them to a coating place and have them bake them for you. Custom Coating here in AZ baked them for nothing. I did have them ceramic coat the headers though. If you need a shinny silver then ceramic is definately the way to go.



John

[Don]

I have had two sets of sidepipes coated by Swain and their ceramic coating is similar to rough sandpaper, a textured finish, avaiable in white only, but can be sprayed black , which I have done, with a high temp paint. Swain's version of ceramic coating could never be polished. Cost is in the $350 range. Located in upstate New York

From the Swain web site:

Because White Lightning™ really is a ceramic, it is not possible to offer color choices like you can get with paint based coatings. However, the white textured finish of White Lightning™ makes it an ideal base for a good high temperature paint if you want to change the color of the coating. The high temperature paints bond well to the natural textured finish of White Lightning and the paint will not impact the effectiveness or durability of the White Lightning™ coating.

Many companies apply the shiny or colored paint based coatings and call them ceramic. Those thin shiny coatings are very different than Swain Tech’s White Lightning™.

Whereas it would be more accurate to call those thin shiny coatings good high temperature paints that may have a very small amount added to them, Swain really uses a ceramic coating that is applied molten where it bonds and cools directly on the substrate.

White Lightning is applied much thicker than any of the cosmetic coatings. White Lightning™ is applied about .015” thick compared to about .002” thick for the cosmetic coatings


http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10969
__________________