I recently purchased a used exhaust manifold (oem) for my BGT
to replace the JC Whitless one that came with my car. It was rusty
and gross, as are most used exhaust manifolds, so I bead blasted it
and painted it with Yamaha High Temperature Black paint. Before painting,
I heated up the manifold slightly with a propane torch. I only heated it
enough to see moisture coming off of the surface. When it was dry, I
used an entire can, spraying on thin coats, and shaking the can a lot.
After letting the manifold sit overnight, I baked it in my oven, starting
at 100 degrees, and bumping the temperature up 100 degrees every half hour
or so, until it was at 500. Then I turned it up to the highest setting,
(this one goes to eleven) and let it bake for two hours at 550 or whatever
the little dots on my oven knob really mean. After letting it cool down
slowly, with the oven door shut, my manifold now has a nice, hard, dull
black finish, that Yamaha claims will withstand 1200 degree temps and
resist water and stuff. We'll see what happens. I'm happy because the
paint only cost me a few bucks, instead of the 13.95 that Eastwood wants,
and I didn't have to order it, I just went to work and bought it.
Since I am putting the factory manifold back on, I had to order a new
head pipe. I got one from Moss, and when I shot some high temp paint down
inside it (to ward off rust for a few extra minutes), paint went running
down the outside of the pipe, due to a hole in a weld. Luckily, I have a
welder that is suitable for welding up brand new exhaust headers. I have
some other gripes about Moss, although trivial: My new shift knob was made
in Taiwan, and has a quite visible mold line around it and a nice flaw
that looks like somebody ground off the mold flash with a ten horse
grinder :-). Also, the chrome on my new shift boot retainer has a flaw in
it, like they used the chrome to cover up a rust hole or something. And,
they only sent me one exhaust doughnut, insted of the two required.
Anyone from the Milwaukee area might be interested to know about a place
called MG's Limited, run by a nice guy named Dick Luening. They service MG's
and sell new and used parts and race an MGB. I believe they hold the track
record for e production at Gratton, but I may be mistaken. I'll be getting
my stuff there from now on.
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