re-did exhaust manifolds today

[BarryK]

rainy day here today so I figured it was a good day to redo my exhaust manifolds as I've been wanting to do it for the last week or so.
I used Paul79's suggestion and tried his method of dry graphic areosol spray.
It only cost approx $4.00 a can and i used less than half a can.
Pauls method is to spray a bit of the dry graphic into a cup and use a small paintbrush to "paint" it onto the exhaust manifold. you can only spray a little bit at a time into the cup as it drys VERY quickly.
At first I was very hesitate to use it because when it sprays out into the cup it looks pure deep black - not exactly the color I was looking for on the manifolds!
:L
I saw pics of Pauls car after he did his so I resolved myself to just trust him and do it. It went on just as black as what was in the cup and I was a bit worried but within about 10 seconds it was already drying down to a nice gray color insterad of black. OK than...lets continue. I just kept spraying in the cup and painting it on until both manifolds were done - took me about 1/2 total including the time to take a few before and after pics.
The color is definetly darker than the stock color but it looks better than the rust and the car isn't a NCRS car so I don't mind if the color is a bit off.
I haven't let the car run yet so after I do and the manifolds heat up it may even lighten up the color a little more - i'm not sure, but the color you see in the attached pic is how it looks after it was on for about 2 minutes on a cold manifold.
BTW, the lighting in my garage is lousy so i didn't notice that until I looked at the "after" pic that I missed a few spots. i'll go back over it later today or tomorrow and get those spots. The flash on the camera allowed them to show up in the pics where I missed a few areas.

I hope the pics come out alright on here, I had to resize them down a lot to be able to post them.

I think I now know the next thing I need to get for my garage - a good light for over the car!

 

[BarryK]

opps, now that I see the pics up and posted, the resizing makes them look really bad - sorry, but i think you can still get the general idea.

can anyone tell me how to get images to post directly in the message instead of just attaching it as a thumbnail that has to be clicked?

 

[67HEAVEN]

opps, now that I see the pics up and posted, the resizing makes them look really bad - sorry, but i think you can still get the general idea.

can anyone tell me how to get images to post directly in the message instead of just attaching it as a thumbnail that has to be clicked?

Barry,

After clicking on your thumbnail, copy the image's address (from the address bar) and surround it with the following codes in your message.

[ img]image-address[ /img] NOTE: Do not leave spaces in the codes (I had to to demonstrate).

I'll leave you to enlarge the other one.

 

[Mac]

Will that paint stand up to the heat?

-Mac

 

[BarryK]

Bob

maybe that's why I can't do it.......there is no "address" for the pics. they are just on my harddrive and I had to go through and upload them via the "attachements manager" of this site.
Maybe I should look into a photo hosting site for when i need to post stuff.

Barry

 

[BarryK]

Will that paint stand up to the heat?

-Mac

Mac

according to Paul he did his about 2 years ago and his still looks like he just applied it.
On the other hand, my friend did his manifolds with another product ((i'm not sure which one but is specific for doing exhaust manifolds and his only lasted for about 500 miles before the rust started showing up again)

Even if I have to redo mine every year it's only about $2.00 per application and 20 minutes of time! Another benefit is that I don't have to remove them from the car to apply the stuff on and bake them in the oven like other products seem to call for.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Bob

maybe that's why I can't do it.......there is no "address" for the pics. they are just on my harddrive and I had to go through and upload them via the "attachements manager" of this site.
Maybe I should look into a photo hosting site for when i need to post stuff.

Barry

I didn't host them. Just go back, click on the thumbnail and there's the address. Voila!

 

[Mac]

I've never heard of doing the manifolds that way but if it works, who cares!!

When I did mine, I heated them with a torch (rather than doing the oven thing) and painted them hot. I was surprised at just how much moisture boiled out of the metal, although I'd been told this would happen. It's been a couple years and my CastBlast still looks 100% (knock on wood). I'll keep your method in mind for the next time, if there ever is one.

-Mac

 

[BarryK]

Bob

lets try this


Before pic

After pic

 

[BarryK]

alright!!
thanks Bob!!!!

now if I can only get the pictures resized to fit on here and not lose all the quality that i did so I can show more detail and i'll be in good shape
LOL

 

[paul67]

Graphite is just carbon so it does not burn off. The carrier solvent is acetone/propane so it evaporates very quickly. It's an inexpensive dress-up that holds up very well.

 

[Tom Bryant]

Looks great. Thanks for the tip.

Tom

 

[IH2LOSE]

Barry it looks great.Now wasnt that fun to do.Thats the type of tinkering your supposed to be doing on your car for relaxation.

Good Luck

 

[BarryK]

Larry
thanks! it really does look a LOT better than my resized pics are showing. The resizing down makes the photos look all smudgy.
And it was fun to do, and as easy as it was, just like when i replaced the temp sender unit 2 weeks ago, it gave me a really nice feeling of accomplishment knowing i did it myself. It's not like I'm doing any serious work on the car like you Bob, Rich, JohnZ, and everyone else who do pretty much everything from the frames on up, but it still is a good feeling doing SOMETHING to the car.
Each time I do a tiny, little bit of a job like this without completely screwing something up it does give me a little more confidence to go on and try the next thing. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get to the point one day of being able to handle a REAL project on the car and not just some baby-step level of work.

 

[IH2LOSE]

maybe I'll actually get to the point one day of being able to handle a REAL project on the car and not just some baby-step level of work.


Barry
Incase you dont know this in cars there no baby steps,If your working on a car your working on a car. The more you work on them the more you ambitious a project youll attempt in the future.

Just becarefull,

While I was away last week one of my fellows decided to rotate the tires on his truck.He removed all of his tires and had his truck up on jack stands (on pavement) He went inside to take a phone call when he came out the truck had fell off the stands it seems one stand sunk into the driveway the truck twisted and all the othe stands sunk into the drive way.the truck ended up on its belly in his driveway.So he was being safe using jack stands as he is supposed to do,But he used them improperly on hot ,soft pavement.Lucky he was in the house when it happened.or he may hae been injured

 

[67HEAVEN]

Excellent example, Larry.

Here's another one. I never use those steel car ramps on asphalt. At the least they sink in and mark the driveway. At the worst, they are unstable.

Use the ramps on concrete.

 

[BarryK]

maybe I'll actually get to the point one day of being able to handle a REAL project on the car and not just some baby-step level of work.


Barry
Incase you dont know this in cars there no baby steps,If your working on a car your working on a car. The more you work on them the more you ambitious a project youll attempt in the future.

Just becarefull,

While I was away last week one of my fellows decided to rotate the tires on his truck.He removed all of his tires and had his truck up on jack stands (on pavement) He went inside to take a phone call when he came out the truck had fell off the stands it seems one stand sunk into the driveway the truck twisted and all the othe stands sunk into the drive way.the truck ended up on its belly in his driveway.So he was being safe using jack stands as he is supposed to do,But he used them improperly on hot ,soft pavement.Lucky he was in the house when it happened.or he may hae been injured

Larry, i suppose you are right regarding any project on the car as being real work but it's still hard to iminge doing a complete engine rebuild or a total restoration just because I managed to change a temp sender unit or paint some manifolds without screwing up. LOL
I do appreciate the support though!!!

You make a great example with the tire rotation story on the importance of even relatively simple jobs and the need to be careful! Hot blacktop can be very soft. I know that from when i was young and grew up with motocycle dirtbikes. These bikes are actually pretty lightweight but in the summer when it was hot if i left the bikes out in the driveway on the kickstand i'd come out a little bit later and find the stand was now sunk into the blacktop a good inch or so! that driveway at our old house on the farm still has those indentations from 25 years ago!
My dad was never happy when he would see them.
LOL

thankfully, that is at least one issue I shouldn't have a problem with anymore. my current driveway is so very steep coming up to the garage that I would never consider doing any work on the car parked on it let alone ever try to jack the car up on it. Inside the garage is nice and level and is concrete so it's a much better place for any work to be done - at least once I get some better lighting in there so i can see what i'm doing.

I'm just trying to learn one simple job at a time and do it slowly to learn and than hopefully be able to keep progressing up to more complex or larger jobs or projects. I'm just taking it slow as to not get arms deep into something that will put me over my head and than i'll be in real trouble! I hate the idea of screwing up so bad I need to actually call a towtruck to load up the car to get it to my mechanic to fix what I got myself into!
:L

 

[attret00]

Your manifold looks great. Where are you getting the graphite lube in a spray?:confused I've been to four hardware stores today and no luck.

 

[BarryK]

Your manifold looks great. Where are you getting the graphite lube in a spray?:confused I've been to four hardware stores today and no luck.

Thanks Attret

I wish the pics looked better because they really do look a lot better in person. look at Pauls pics and you can see how good they really come out as his pics really show how nice they come out looking even if it is a little darker than stock.

I got my Dry Graphite spray at NAPA
This is what they had but i'm sure there are lots of the same stuff under different names. I first bought the wrong stuff at another place. you have to make sure it's the areosol spay can and not just a liquid graphite lubricant. the spray can stuff also includes Propane as the contents so you know you have the correct product.

 

[attret00]

Alright BarryK, I found it at NAPA. Like you said about a half hour and it was done. Looks great and easy too. Thanks for the tip.