DIY Ceramic coatings

A while back i purchased a ceramic coated up and down pipe from crucial racing and have been impressed with the way the coating has held up and how much cooler they run than the non coated parts.

I decided to see if it was possible to coat parts on my own. A little bit of research lead me to the Techline coatings home page http://www.techlinecoatings.com/Exhaust.htm

I purchased a can of the black satin coating and used it to coat the hot side of my new vf34 turbo and the heat shield. I sand blasted the housing, degreased it and used an air brush to apply the paint. At the same time i ported and polished the inlet.

The result has been very positive so far. The turbo/heatshield combination seems to run as cool or cooler than my old wrapped vf24. I'm seeing spool up in 4th gear of 16 psi by 3000-3100 RPM.

As a second test I took my old stainless M2 up pipe and sandblasted and coated it. It looks great but since I dont have a reason to take off the crucial pipe its just sitting in the garage. (i'll post a picture later so you can see what it looks like).

My next test is to take my exhaust manifolds off and try the coating on them.

If you want to attempt this project yourself you will need the following:

• aircompressor to run sandblaster and airbrus

• small sand blaster and aluminum oxide media

• air brush or paint gun

• something to degrease the metal prior to painting (acetone works well)

The key is to get the part blasted, cleaned and degreased before you paint. Especially the degreased step. It cant be too clean.

Dont apply thick coats, the product comes with very specific directions about how to apply it.

Baking the part is not necessary if its an exhaust part like the turbo, up pipe or manifolds. When the engine reaches operating temp the product will cure on the car. It smokes for a bit while it cures so just go for a drive.

So far with the 1 can i've done a turbo, up pipe, heat shield and about 1/2 -3/4 of the can is left.

 

great write up!!! i used to do powdercoat and have been following this product for a while. if you have the time to do things properly this can be a great cost saver in the long run.

 

ooh VF24, I think thats the same as my VF29 except without the titanium compressor.

I think Alex will like to hear this since he's trying to do some research on heat shields and coating.

 

vf24 and 29 are the same turbine ane exhaust housings but the 29 has a newer wheel design thats supposed to be better.

I had previously wrapped my 24 using one of those turbo wrap kits and with that + the stock heat shield the intercooler never even got warm. Most days you could go for a long drive and put your hand directly on the heat shield when you stopped. The wrap really held in the heat.

So far this combination of ceramic coating the exhaust housing and the heat shield is producing similar results. The real test is how well will it work on a 100 degree summer day.

 

Read your other thread. I have personally had the turbo wrap + factory heat shield combo installed. It was very effective. The downside is that the wrap is very fragile once its been heated up and sets in place. It gets kinda brittle and most likely would have to be replaced if you had to pull the turbo for any reason.

I've got the factory heat shield coated with the ceramic coating on both sides to try and block heat being absorbed on the inside and being radiated on the outside.

If you want to pull yours off and have it coated I'm sure we can work something out. Takes about 30 minutes or so to do the heat shield and about 15 minutes for it to air dry. Shoot me a PM.

I've been monitoring temps using one of those laser temp guns to see how effective the coating is on the heat shield. So far i've been impressed but I need to gather more data.

 

i have my heat shield ceramic costed... however ive been too lazy to install it... maybe i'll do it this install day

 

Techline rocks, almost all independent shops use their coatings, including milliers locally in atlanta. I was scared to try it myself, but it seems it worked out interesting!.

 

Here's a picture of my latest ceramic coating project.



I used the techline turbox coating in blue to coat a set of perrin equal length headers. This picture is after the coating has fully cured.

 

Thats hot. Do you have any dyno numbers after the header swap?

 

nope not yet, the car is currently torn apart in my garage. I'm installing a 6 speed in it.

 

Would you be willing to coat a dp for a small fee plus cost of parts? I don't have an aircompressor and won't be getting one anytime soon...

 

Sure. There's 2 kinds of techline coatings I've used with good results, Satin Black and TurboX. TurboX comes in black or blue. You can get either one from Summit Racing. One of the small cans of turboX is more than enough to do a DP + Up Pipe + headers.

Let me know when you want to do it. I'm waiting for more sandblasting media to come in and I'm set.

 

Awesome! I can go down to summit and get the stuff. Blue might be cool. Might you have some time next weekend?

 

shoot me a PM and we can work out the times and such. I'd also suggest doing the heatshield on the turbo as well. Mine's holding up quite well.

 

is this painted on?
externally coated or do you have to coat the insides as well ?

 

you sandblast the exterior then spray this on using a HVLP gun. You can do the insides as well but I dont own the right equipment to do the inside yet.

 

Will you be able to offer that service to WRXAtlanta ? :bowdown:

 

if anyone is intersted send me a PM.

If a bunch of you want to do it consider splitting the cost of the coating. You can buy the larger can and have enough to do 2-3 downpipes + headers + up pipes.

Summit has the black satin listed at:

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=400834+115+316658&autoview=sku

Black satin is fine for all the exhaust parts if you are ok with black.

If you want the blue you need to order the Turbo X Blue. I'm not finding it currently on summit's site, the old part number was TLC-19008.

 

I hate to bump an old thread but does anyone have a sandblaster I can use or is Veck still doing the coatings? I just purchased some techline TurboX coating and need to get something sandblasted before I coat it.

 

hit up Breel, I know he has one.

 

Yeah it me up, just that time is tight for the next couple of weeks so if you can bring it down or meet up at Andretti's on Monday night, I can get it done. Not familiar with the coating, is it a spray and bake?

Never mind I just read the beginning of the thread.

 

Got a blaster.

 

i want to do may my turbo housing, downpipe, upipe, headers, and them wrap them. Possible do a Coating day? I can purchase some coating, and then we can all go at it? Also wanted to do my cold charge pipe, inside out. Will it need to get dipped?

 

I am down for a coating day. I was going to buy a HVLP detail gun. Breel, do you have an air compressor with filter at your place?

I already ordered my Techline TurboX coating from Techline direct.

Just a FYI - This is the same ceramic coating that Grimmspeed uses

 

how much did you order and what was the cost? I heard good things about Techline Coating. I am hoping Mike will be done with the cross-over pipe so i can have it all before the coating day. With the pipe and coating, i am hoping to shed decent spool rpms. Will be a good before and after.

 

Just a FYI - This is the same ceramic coating that Grimmspeed uses[/QUOTE]

Was thinking it was the same, and yes have Sata's of all shapes and sizes along with a cheap gun for spraying ceramic mixes. The only thing I don't have is a paint booth at the shop, that's in the back yard of my house.

 

I dont think we will be needing an actual paint booth.

The coating runs like $50 for the small can of it. The bigger can is about $140. You can put it on with either a small Detail Gun or an air brush kit. I am going to try airbrushing it on first. I just purchased a cheap sandblaster gun and will look for some 120 grit Aluminum oxide material tomorrow at Northern.

 

39.99 a bucket for the aluminum oxide

 

don't know how much will be enough, but we can all pitch in according to wat we need. Like aluminum oxide, coating...may come out cheaper for everyone.

 

I have access to kiln that can easily handle up pipes and down pipes.

 

You guys had better have proper respirators. From what I remember that coating is some toxic shit.
Otherwise, I've got some stuff I wouldn't mind coating as well.

 

Ok, so I picked up a cheap sandblaster, aluminum oxide media, and air brush kit this weekend. I need to grab some acetone and just found a very nice repirator on sale at Harbor Freight. I should have the ceramic coating and header tomorrow. I will let yall know how it goes later this week.

Mike, you don't need a kiln to bake the stuff. You are just suppose to put the part on after it air dries and leave it at idle for 30 minutes.

 

make sure you have goggles - not just eyeglass kind

 

Keep us posted, I think Im gonna give it a whirl too while motors out. Got the compressor, so just need the sandblaster and the Spray Gu. Sounds good. Whats the airfilter needed for on the compressor side? Not super familiar.

Thank you.

 

Air Filter? Well I did buy a samll Filter to seperate any condensation that comes from the air compressor. You also need some sort of repirator when spraying the ceramic coating.

 

Make sure to seal up all the openings before you blast. I've cut some blanks to fit old fittings and hose clamp them on. I have a dedicated air hose just for spraying. The last thing you want is oil from air tools or the compressor all over your fresh metal.

 

im going to try this your wheels did indeed look awesome last night

 

I guess you were talking about my wheels, well wait till I'm done with Techlords, just started prepping them.

 

hey breel, I wanted to ask you about possibly cutting/fabbing/welding some taller rear sway bar mounts. I have the perrin but the mounts it had were snapped. I'd just use spacers but I know that's not as strong as a real mount.

 

I think we're going to meet up at Techlord's on Sunday. Come by and we'll see about fabbing something up. I think Sparta is planning on coming down to the shop to do some trans work Fri or Sat so get with him about maybe following him down,

 

what do you charge to coat them? Possible you can also p&p them?