Exhaust manifold color

[28plymouthman]

I am going to paint the exhaust manifold on my 1928 Plymouth flat head 4 cylinder. What is the best looking high temp color to use.

[Hans1]

reference factory photos and try to match,  at least you can say it's close to original.

I know old photos of factory production are not in color, but you can review factory brochures which may give a good hint as to coloration. 

I do not have info on Chrysler products, but for cars I do collect I have a lot of relative information from  photos and  brochures.

 

 

[Matt Harwood]

If it's like most manufacturers, they either left them raw cast iron or installed them then painted the engine so they'd have engine enamel on them... until it was driven the first time and it all burned off. There would probably be some light scale on them by the time they hit the showroom. There are some moderately convincing-looking cast iron gray hi-temp paints you can use and I've seen professional thermal coatings that are very convincing. I paint a lot of manifolds and more often than not, my choice of color comes down to what I think will look best in that particular engine bay. For instance, I used flat black on the exhaust manifolds of my '41 Buick because I like how it looks against the red much more than gray (even though the original manifolds would just have been raw):

 

 

 

However, for this '56 Chevy, we did them in gray, which seems a bit more authentic:

 

I think it comes down to what you like as much as what was there originally, because chances are it burned off in short order and then started to rust.

[28plymouthman]

I think the cast iron look is good. I will use it. Thanks for the replies

[keiser31]

Eastwood makes good cast iron gray paint.

[JACK M]

ceramic coating is the only thing I have found that wont burn off.

Available in several colors. Even raw grey.

[Akstraw]

Ceramic coating in "cast iron gray" has held up well and looks good on both my 1915 Buick and 1972 Volvo.  I used M&R Performance Coatings in Kodak, TN.

[28plymouthman]

Ok, i think I will go with the ceramic cast iron gray. I am tired of taking this off every 5 or 6 years to redo. Will look up M&R. Thanks again

[John348]

2 minutes ago, 28plymouthman said:

Ok, i think I will go with the ceramic cast iron gray. I am tired of taking this off every 5 or 6 years to redo. Will look up M&R. Thanks again

 

I felt the same way,, every few years of taking the manifolds off was getting played out. I had mine coated by Jet-Hot and have not had to touch them in 15 years, I know they have a place in Hartford Connecticut and another in North Carolina. I would never use anything else again. It really was not that expensive either  

[John348]

I found the card of the company who both of my cars. It was Central Coatings, Hartford CT (860) 528-8281

Edited June 26, 2018 by John348 (see edit history)