andycouchman_5147 Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Currently silver (ali) painted but with lots of paint flaking off/rust. What colour should it be? I'm thinking ali again or a more 'natural' looking gunmetal colour. Or should I just strip off all the paint, leaving it to gently rust naturally? I'm hoping to do it without removing the manifold. Possible? Thanks all. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Factory spec was rusty. Well, originally black from the casting but it wasn't a protective coating so rusty after about ten miles. If you want to paint it, and have any hope of the paint staying, then it's not practical on the car. You need to take it off and grit blast it before applying the paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 If you want it to stay silver any length of time it has to come off, be blasted back to solid metal and aluminium sprayed. It gets proper hot in service so even the special high temp paints have limited life. Ceramic coating also possible if you have the urge to spend a lot of money. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 once painted always needs repainting, once rusty it just stays .....well rusty and maintenance free Pete 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andycouchman_5147 Posted July 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Thanks all - it's looking like rusty is the short term answer. Longer term... will wait till I need to take the head off for any reason. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 yes good plan, its a hot for labour intensive jobbies just now Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Foster Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 What Nick said ! I have just had mine done and so far so good. (in Poole, Dorset) Stainless steel nuts have gone a fetching shade of light blue, so yes it does get hot ! Ian F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Stainless nuts, or any other part that has a critical task, just don't have the strength of ordinary steel. Only good for purely cosmetic use. Better is to used bronze nuts. Will not seize and perfectly strong enough. Available from eBay suppliers, or Halfords used to stock them. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted July 5, 2018 Report Share Posted July 5, 2018 Stainless is strong enough but is very prone to galling, especially where A4stainless nuts on A4 stainless steel bolts/studs and heat involved. Bronze is good. There's some pretty exotic stuff in use by the OEMs these days too - the studs and bolts on the exhaust manifold and turbo on my A6 still look good after 21 years and >310k. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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