Anyone have painted their intercooler and piping.... Gonna paint black.. need techniques and what materials were used....

black intercoolers, anybody have info on that??

 

aww man u got me all excited. i thought you had pics and stuff.

 

Look at my photo album. The web address is in my profile. I painted the intercooler on my CRX and will be doing the same thing to the intercooler for my Civic. I used high temp Krylon in flat black. It's held up great for several months now. Just put on light coats, so you don't load up the fins.

And just in case someone has something smart to say...what color are "most" radiators on factory production cars?

 

http://forums.civicland.com/viewtopi...=stealth#55148

VTC_CiViC's ride jealousy has overwhelmed me

 

i cannot view

Im told its bad to paint the intercooler, due to heat transfer on the fins.. is this true??

 

Dont paint the fins, but only the endtanks and bars.

art

 

I am painting my IC piping now. Just about finished, I have a couple of welds I need to have done.

I used Dupli-Color black hi-heat (1200 degree) paint. You have to sand the piping well, to get the aluminumization off or at least scuffed really well or else the paint won't stick. You can use 150 grit sandpaper.

After that I paint it a couple of coats, then wet sand with 400 grit, then apply another 1-2 coats depending on how good of coverage I got with the first two. Then I wet sand again with 400, 600, and finish with 1200 or 1500. Then I use paint cleaner, then polish, then wax it.

Which brings up a tip...if you have anything that's painted or chromed, such as IC piping, waxing it will help prevent rust. I use some stuff from Blue Coral called Autofom (sp?) that has this Fomblin stuff in it. Rolex uses Fomblin, so you know it's good stuff.

Also, I applied JB Qwik around the ends of the pipes, let it dry for about 5 minutes, then used my fingers to mold it into a lip/bead. This will help keep your pipes from popping out of the couplings. The JB Qwik will not stick to you if you let it sit a few minutes before messing with it, and dries pretty quickly after that. I will post pics shortly, once all my piping is done.


[Modified by mplex2000, 7:40 AM 7/5/2002]

 

you might also go to a rad shop and have them paint it with the stuff they use on radiators. its black but isn't supposed to hurt the heat transfer.

 

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I paint my Greddy Piping and Ic Piping black.. It look much better then before.. BEfore, The greddy Pipes are blue and some scratch.. The I/C Pipings are Gray... SO I use high temperature black paint and paint on the piping.. It look much better..

 

Can we get this cleared up once and for all because I am interested as well. It seems this post is up like twice a week and every time its different answers with some saying dont do it because of efficiency issues and some saying its ok. I specifically remember nineseccrx(I think thats his name) post that it said in his spearco manual that painting would not disrupt the efficiency. Will someone with proof please help us out? Im dying to know the answer.

 

I think the best idea would be to mask off the fins and then goto town on the rest. Air is supposed to go through the fins... so the more you clog up the intercooler fins, the less efficent your intercooler will be. I plan on painting mine.
People who think that your car is stock when in fact it's boosted,

 

It's pretty sad if someone has to be TOLD not to do that , good lookin out just incase though!

 

Finally, there's people who agree with me on here that its okay to paint the IC. You don't realize how many arguements I get into with idiots telling me that its bad.

I used high temp flat black paint, masked off all the fins, and painted the main outside parts. Then, I bought a bottle of black touch up paint, and handpainted the bars going in between the fins. I'm not sure how else to paint those parts, so if anybody has a better idea, let me know.

I also got an idea of possibly buying Silly Puddy(whatever its called), and neatly placing it over the fins. It will block out any paint from seeping into that area, and its easy to remove the silly puddy once your done. But its just an idea. Can somebody try it first, so that if it doesn't work, at least it won't be my IC that's fucked up?

 

Anyone who tells you that you can't paint the end tanks is an idiot, but you should NEVER paint the core, or any part of it. I'm not sure what you meant by painting the bars in between the fins, but it obviously related to the core, which is a very bad idea.

 

Can you explain to me now what's the difference between painting the ends of the IC, and painting in between the fins? I never touched any paint on the fins, therefore, I caused no damage to it. Think about it. The coils are what collects and directs the air into your piping. What would the rest of the IC have ANYTHING to do with blocking air passage?

 

Apparently, I'm the spelling **** of Honda-Tech.

Silly Putty.

Shawn

 

LMAO! Thanks Shawn. I wasn't 100% sure.

 

OK so this is my question. some people say its ok to paint the WHOLE IC even the fins.

some people say dont paint the fins because you will lose efficiency.

So who is right- everyone one is just saying yes or others are saying no. what INFO do you have to back up what u say. How credible are you for saying not to paint the fins?

Ive seen cars with painted IC apperently they run great. Ive seen Car radiators painted black, apperently they work great also- since almost like 90 percent of cars have painted radiators.

This guy wants to paint his IC black and so do many people including myself. So what really is the correct answers?


[Modified by Cramerox, 2:19 PM 7/6/2002]

 

I just finished painting my intercooler 5 mins ago ... I cut some masking tape and taped it over the fins and painted everything else with 1300F flat black generic spray paint.

 

Trigun- we still meeting up next week right?

 

yup!

 

so you going to show us a picture of your painted IC?

 

LOL. I just got back inside from touching up on my BLACK intercooler.

And about the painted fins? That's definetly not helping you. I mean, just think about it, when paint gets into those small fins, the paint will dry and clog them up. Common sense would tell us that there's no way that can be good for your car. But, painting the rest of the IC will do absolutely no harm to it whatsoever.

Just like you said, you know people who have done it, and it works great.

Black intercoolers
Painting the fins

 

sure

btw don't mind the purplish look. i can assure you it's black