VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Manifolds

My intake has some old black paint but the exhaust is "bare" cast iron. I put bare in quotes because it looks like sometime in the past someone sprayed something on it that didn't like the heat. My question is what color did they come from the factory?

It should look like freshly sandblasted cast iron. The only way to keep it that way is ceramic coating. No too expensive to do.

What about the intake?

For several years I've been using a manifold paint from Bill Hirsch. I remove the manifold, wire brush it to get rid of loose scale and brush on the paint. Heat makes it adhere to the manifold. I've used it on several engines, and they look good for several thousand miles afterwards.
Sid

The intake should be the same as your engine. The entire engine was painted assembled except for boltons like the Carb and Gen which should be black. Even the base of the plugs and gasket edges are engine color. Some say Hirsh paint is too light and fillingstation paint is best.

Budget paint from Home Depot will have to work. High Temp paint is hard to find. Suppliers don't want to ship it. More regulations.

I have had great results with POR 15's gray engine paint, and it doesn't need to be touched up. The secret to using POR 15 is to bake the paint on, that permanently bonds the paint. I have a buddy with an oven in his garage so I take my manifolds to him and he heats them up for me. It creates quite a bit of smoke so this is not for doing in the bosses stove. I also am meticulous about following all the directions on the POR 15 can/fact sheet. Good night again, Mike

The engines were painted all grey at the factory the exhaust manifold and all. The exhaust manifolds promptly burned the paint off and turned rust colored just like yours Tiny. That is the way they all looked in service and I think that is the way they should look. The parts added on after basic engine assembly like starters, generators, etc. were black. exhaust manifolds painted with high temp paint look really nice but that is not what they looked like in service when they were actually being used.
Just my opinion

You can tell a lot about a man from looking at his engine. This is POR 15 in gray. Good morning, Mike

My engine is about the same color as yours. I ordered a can of spray for touch up from FS and the color is as dark as your air filter looks in the picture. Is the lighter grey available. I talked to steve at FS and he said the darker color is correct. I am not disputing his input as he has invested alot of time matching colors. I just do not want to try to paint the entire engine while it is in the car. It just needs a little touch up. Grant

Hasn't anyone tried ( Eastwood Co. ) Calyx for Exhaust Manifolds Yet...? Kevin