Ceramic coating for Headers

[97ss497]

Paul Barry Motorsports or Jet Hot....
Which is the better coating for the money?

[Injuneer]

I moderate several different F-Body "tech" boards, and I've seen far too many posts over the past year regarding "rust" and "flaking" on the Jet Hot header coatings. Unfortunately, I have also heard of a couple problems with the Paul Barry coatings. I buddy of mine had the headers for his 79 T/A (462 Olds engine) done by Paul, in the upgraded super high temp coating, and they "corroded" and rusted quite a bit.

I had a set of JBA's for a few years, coated by Airborn, and they were like new when I sold them. I now run a set of AS&M's that I bought used, I know are at least 6 years old, have an EGT bung welded on AFTER the coating, and they still look very good. The AS&M headers are coated by HPC.

I now have a set of Hooker LT's that I need to get coated, and although Paul Barry tempts me, I will also consider Airborn, HPC and Swain. The Swain stuff is very "high tech" and does not have the "satin chrome" look that most other cera-metallic coatings have.

[97ss497]

Come on.......
There's got to be more opinions out there. I just bought SLP shorties for my 97 and need to send 'em out for coating. Who should get my business???

[NorthernSS]

I bought my SLP headers straight from SLP with the coating. Been on the car for a year and still look exactly the same as the day I bought them. I dont know who coats for them but it looks awesome still.

[fastTa]

I moderate several different F-Body "tech" boards, and I've seen far too many posts over the past year regarding "rust" and "flaking" on the Jet Hot header coatings. Unfortunately, I have also heard of a couple problems with the Paul Barry coatings.

That is interesting info. I've noticed lately that a lot of companies who have been reputable in the 80's and 90's seem to be slacking on their quality control lately. I was going to use a Moser 12 bolt but my speed shop has received their last 6 Moser 12 bolt's in very bad condition. The weld's were very sloppy, and the ring and pinion were setup way off. Racing development companies who TRULY care about the customer and their products are hard to find now-a-days. I do alot of research and calling around to various speed shops to get different perspective s and opinons on a particular product before I even think about buying it. Alot of times people hear a popular brand such as JET HOT and just automatically assume that it is a good product, and sometimes it turns out that it is not?! I guess doing your homework really is a good pay off. Good info Fred.

[Joe 1320]

All I can add is my 3" downpipe on my GN was coated by Jet Hot 7 years ago and still looks perfect. The same goes for my Poston's headers with the high temp ceramic coating. Both of those have taken alot of heat and still look like the day they were installed. I would be interested in who Poston's gets to do their ceramic coating. They supposedly manufacture their headers, there have been zero complaints and they take substantial heat. Perhaps it's worth a call.

[N20LT4Bird]

Originally posted by fastTA
I was going to use a Moser 12 bolt but my speed shop has received their last 6 Moser 12 bolt's in very bad condition. The weld's were very sloppy, and the ring and pinion were setup way off.

I spoke with Billy Graham at Billy Graham's Camaro and Firebird Salvage the other day. He said that the owner of Moser engineering and his family passed away several months back. I would hate to spread a rumor if this wasnt true, but apparently Billy Graham knew the family. This could be the reason, because as far as I knew, they were a straight shooting company - real honest and good quality.

[Injuneer]

Just so everybody undestands.... I am not trying to bad-mouth Jet Hot. All I am doing is making an observation about some internet posts on F-Body bulleting boards. But I do cover several different boards, being a moderator here, on CamaroZ28.com and Project TransAM, and I post a lot on fbody.com. Just seems odd that in the past year Jet Hot has had a lot of bad posts. I have NOT seen any of these problems regarding Jet Hot first hand. The one case I saw with the Paul Barry coatings was "first-hand". And it wasn't pretty.

I'm sure all these companies would stand behind their coatings, and replace them if they were defective, but unfortunately the work of removing and reinstalling the headers, with the car "down" for the new coating, shipping, etc. would be a PITA.

I think that many of these outfits have problems adapting to "growth"..... Moser obviously grew like crazy in terms of the 4th Gen 12-bolt, and they built their reputation on delivering it in "2 days".... Strange on the other hand keeps plodding along, taking one to two months to delver a 12-bolt.... but again, from my own experience with Strange, and talking to several others who have Mosers, and watching the posts fly on the bulletin boards, Strange does not have the quality issues that Moser has.

Same with the coating.... Jet Hot broke the 4th Gen market open by getting direct shipments of Hooker LT's, installing the O2 bungs, then coating them and selling them on a "3 easy payments" plan... 1/3 up front and the balance billed to you credit card over the next couple months. And, when they realized they could make even more money, they now sell "Jet Hot LT's" rather than the Hookers..... and over this period of growth, quality seems (based solely on "posts") to have gone down the crapper.

Just a thought.

[bn_bullet]

Just to add to Fred's post... I have the Paul Barry Motorsports coating on my SLP headers. I have just installed them and can say that the coating looks good. They are still new so I can't comment on any longevity issues just yet. Paul was slow to get my headers done but he worked with me regarding the coating that I wanted. Specifically, he coated them first with the 2100 degree gray coating inside and out and then coated the outside with a 1200 degree aluminum finish coating. Also, due to the lengthy amount of time it took to get my headers done, he knocked $50.00 off the price once they were completed. So, I can't say how long the coating will last but I can say that I would recommend him for his customer service. If you do choose to use him, just be prepared for a 6-8 week completion.

My 2 cents...
Brian

[97ss497]

Brian,

Can I ask what you had to pay for the dual coating job from PBM?

[bn_bullet]

97ss497,

I had my headers coated with the dual coating and the y-pipe coated with just the 1200 degree coating. Paul Barry told me he would be happy to coat the y-pipe with the dual coating but didn't think it was at all necessary. The total quote was $290.00 for both the headers and y-pipe but Paul took another $50.00 off because it took longer than he expected to complete. So, the total cost to me was $240.00. IMO, this was more than fair to me and I feel that Paul runs a good business. JMHO.

Brian

[M3EATER - GG '00 WS6 T/A]

OK.... I wasn't going to say anything about this ... but I guess I just have to.

As Fred had noted ...

Take a look at the shots of the headers on my car (the first prototype PPC set). They were done by Jet-Hot. The photos you see are of about 3 weeks of driving in the winter (installed in early Dec 2002) then being parked from Jan. 10, 2003 through Aug 2003. If you ask me..... it's hidious!

All PPC coating is done by Airborn & I have had no problems.






Gordon
PPC
www.provenperformanceconcepts.com