How To: Make your exhaust manifold heat shield shiny as a new quarter

[Mark94]

Sorry for the off-topic posts. It's all taken care of and no harm done.

Back on topic.

I had no idea anyone did this before, I was just staring at my engine a few months ago and that discolored heatshield was staring at me begging to be made-over so I through it on my polishing wheel and it came out pretty well.

If you keep up with hand polishing it every so often while on the car it should not loose much luster. You can even throw a coat of wax on it every once in a while.

I had my valve cover chromed on my Prelude by a Harley shop and they told me not to waste money on expensive metal polishes. They said just use wax when you feel like it. This is the Prelude's engine 3 years after the chroming was done. No cracking, fading, discoloring etc.

Mark

 

[Velocifero]

I think black Powder-coated pipes with black HS would look sweet. I would do it if I had the $. In fact, I don't even know where I could get this done locally.

Thank-you, that is my approach, just wanted to know about painting it since powder coating is pricey here. all my pipes are already black.

 

[laracroft]

Here's mine powder coated black...

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=46336

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=46337

 

[MSP#735]

hmm black jet coated HS...dont think it would look too bad...but, what would be better for me atleast is if i could get the 'mazdaspeed' on the HS accented with yellow! now THAT would look good, IMO that is....think this is even possible?

 

[laracroft]

They didn't have any yellow couplings, or else I would've gotten them. But I opted for black to match the pipes rather than blue or red. I'll probably paint the strut bar yellow or jet coat it black too. Dont know yet and I'm getting broke spending all this money on paint. lol

 

[MSP#735]

yea, i was also toying with powder coating my strut bar yellow but, the guy had 2 yellows a very dull one and a frekin NEON yellow. needless to say i left mine red but, may do it black and accent it with a yellow "RacingBeat" decal....any opinions on that idea?

one other question, would 500 degree engine enamel be hot enough for the heat shield? the can says its ideal for: "engine blocks, valve covers and intake manifolds" (dunno)

 

[msp35]

Probably want to try a higher temp than that. ATLEAST the 1200* stuff.

 

[MSP#735]

hmmm ok wasnt sure however i did paint my valve cover and accent the letter on the cover actuall its the valve cover, cover hehe

 

[laracroft]

I agree. I'd do a paint that does well for up to 1200 degrees just to be safe. It gets pretty hot. But for just the valve cover itself, a 500 degree paint will probably be fine. I thought about painting mine, but I dont want to go nuts. If I do it though, I'm going to get it painted the exact color of the blazing yellow and have it professionally done like I did the other parts. Only because I hate looking at 5 different colored yellows all over the place.

 

[MSP#735]

I agree. I'd do a paint that does well for up to 1200 degrees just to be safe. It gets pretty hot. But for just the valve cover itself, a 500 degree paint will probably be fine. I thought about painting mine, but I dont want to go nuts. If I do it though, I'm going to get it painted the exact color of the blazing yellow and have it professionally done like I did the other parts. Only because I hate looking at 5 different colored yellows all over the place.

who did you go thru, i may need your connections for my heatshield....

 

[laracroft]

It's a place up here called Harbs autobody. They do excellent work and do it at pretty good prices. I dont have any complaints about the work that they've done thus far. And they probably have my paint code memorized. lol

 

[MSP#735]

even better for me!!!!

 

[RX]

http://www.msprotege.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=46337

What is that filter behind the catch can used for?

 

[MSP#735]

coolant catch can

 

[ZenProtege]

Ok so argument dropped. If anyone ever has input they should say it on here, IMO. Of course someone saying one product is better than the other w/o trying both... or someone talking about HP gains on their car with a mod that is not on the car, now that is a different story. When someone talks about something universal... such as painting, that is cool. I never bought the high temp paint but I knew about it and have also painted things... so I gave my 2 cents.

Thank you ZenProtege for putting together this write-up. Sorry for the recent jacking.

BTW you can add this thought.... if you flick thin metal and it 'tings' then it more than likely is stainless steel and therefore polishable. I flicked all the heatshields under my hood and that is where I got the idea to see if you can polish them. I tried, and it worked (well for the manifold HS). I think they coat them from stock.... but I have no idea what the coating is or what it does.

Keep giving input......It was your idea, I remembered seeing one of your post a while back of your engine pics and the heat shield caught my eye, it also looked like somthing I could do on my budget. So I did a search found your old post and figuered out a way to do it from there


BTW, I have several friends who work at body shops, they are telling me they might be able to polish my valve and timing belt cover to match the heatshield. I'm skeptical on the results but I'll be the guinea pig for testing so oh well if turns out bad. If it works there will be another how to on that

I'm going to try to get pics up tomorrow of how to do this step by step.

 

[memo79]

uhh, I uhhhh, tried this today. And after about 3 hours of buffing (headshake , I've come to the realization that the compound I got was too fine. Look at the before and after pics below. There's also one of me after I finished, too. See how dirty I am? yeah, I'm a dirty boy.... (lick) Last one is the HS in the car.
Maybe next weekend I'll look for a rougher compound and go at it again.


Edit: oh yeah, and wear some eye protection and a mask if you use a dremel. The s*** flies everywhere

 

[usman]

nice shirt

 

[Velocifero]

They didn't have any yellow couplings, or else I would've gotten them. But I opted for black to match the pipes rather than blue or red. I'll probably paint the strut bar yellow or jet coat it black too. Dont know yet and I'm getting broke spending all this money on paint. lol

I used 900 degree caliper paint for my strut bar (black) and it looks great. I spray it on a sponge brush and brush it on, you get a great cover and no running like when you spray it. it's a much cheaper solution to powdercoating such a small piece, and I didn't even take mine off the car.

 

[CasopoliS]

uhh, I uhhhh, tried this today. And after about 3 hours of buffing (headshake , I've come to the realization that the compound I got was too fine. Look at the before and after pics below. There's also one of me after I finished, too. See how dirty I am? yeah, I'm a dirty boy.... (lick) Last one is the HS in the car.
Maybe next weekend I'll look for a rougher compound and go at it again.


Edit: oh yeah, and wear some eye protection and a mask if you use a dremel. The s*** flies everywhere

So you used a dremel to do the buffing? If so, that is one problem. How did you get that dent in the HS? Get a little upset?
If you use compound bars and press the bar against the buffing wheel it will coat the buffing wheel and not fly everywhere. It took me 5 minutes to buff my HS, and it took no effort, I did not even have to press hard. I had a high speed grinding wheeel with a big round buffing disk (like you see in my attachment a few posts back), and used compound bars. I stayed clean as well.

 

[Wiggles422]

has anyone tried to powder coat the HS? I'd like to get it matching my powdercoated pipes (glossy black). would it get too hot and start to fade or chip the powdercoating off?