| Author | Message | ||
     Greg_e |
At least one person was interested in this, so I thought I would follow up. I used the "natural" (tan) colored DEI material to wrap my header, then painted with their white high temp paint made to be used with the wrap. After almost all the smoke is gone, my header is now the same color as the tan wrap. Pretty certain that my headers do not get up to the 1500 degrees that the paint claims to work at, that would be a bright red glow. The wrapped headers are definitely not that hot on the outside or it would have seared the skin from my hand when I touched them to see how effective the wrap really was. I think casual contact with my cordura suit is now mostly safe which was the entire plan, but the white color was a complete failure. Looked really nice before I rode it, should have taken the time for a picture, too late now. Still slightly smoking after an hour ride with lots of city travel to allow it to get hot. | ||
| Firebolt32 |
I was interested if it matters. My 9R was white with orange logos. I went with the orange wrap...no paint. Maybe do your headers in the accent color? Would break it up a bit as well. | ||
| Greg_e |
My bike had orange letters, now they are black. Trying to keep it a no-chroma scheme. Going to have to tear it off and go with black as the tan is horrible. The black paint will do the same thing and just burn off, so I need to start with black-ish wrap and then hope the paint holds for a little longer. I even splurged on the stainless ties so I'm out about $60-$65 plus the pain and suffering of needing to drop the engine again to remove the header. The white would have been grand since no one runs white headers, guess I know why now. | ||
| Firebolt32 |
I got mine from heatshieldproducts.com. I used stainless hose clamps. They worked well and looked good. They were like a buck a piece at the hardware store. White would have looked awesome if it could have been pulled off. You can't really clean header wrap. I about shit myself when I let some kids wash my bike for a fund raiser. They damn near scrubbed to orange right off. | ||
| Greg_e |
I wonder what their inferno wrap looks like after it has been heated??? | ||
| Glitch |
 Here's what my black header wrap looked like after about six months. Black wrap, with black paint whenever it started looking ugly. | ||
| Andymnelson |
Greg- just curious, how long did you wait after painting to start the bike up? | ||
| Greg_e |
More than a day to try and let the paint dry. Then I only idled it for about 5 minutes to make sure it started after all the work. Idled it about 10 minutes the next day to let a little more smoke out, still white at the end of that session. Decided the only way to really fix it was take it for a ride so by the third day it should have been really dry. | ||
| Greg_e |
Oh, I should mention that the 12 header I have is already wrapped in black and was very used, still looks decent enough and I shouldn't have fought the trend of black wrapped headers. | ||
| Andymnelson |
Interesting. I asked because even after drying for a day, my black painted wrap smokes like crazy when run first. I wonder how "discolored" it is from the burning?  I have successfully used white and silver 1500 degree paint on Buell headers....why would it be more difficult on header wrap?? | ||
| Glitch |
....why would it be more difficult on header wrap?? Fabric has more surface area. | ||
| Greg_e |
I was thinking the same thing. Has anyone ever measured the temperature of their headers? Seems that 1500 degrees would be glowing bright red even in sunlight so we should be way under the temperature range. I know that the external temperature of the wrap is low enough that it didn't give me an immediate burn when I put a finger on it to test, the bare header would have definitely done this since I've experienced it already. The bare wrap says it will smoke, so the paint may not have actually burned, maybe I'll try to clean it tonight and see what happens. | ||
| Glitch |
Just run it for a while. Let it go through so heat cycles. Maybe the wrap hasn't finished "burning in" yet. After around 100 miles or so, try the white paint again. | ||
| Greg_e |
The guy a DEI says there is not much chance in it ever looking good and is offering me a roll of their "titanium" wrap which does not need paint, or a roll of the black but he says that will turn gray fast. White would have been so nice and different. I'll probably take him up on the titanium wrap just so it doesn't look like it was burned up. | ||
| Glitch |
Titanium, might just be the ticket. All I've seen on bikes are either the natural, or black. Looks like you'll be unique after all. Best of luck. It's really hard keeping any fabric to stay any color (other than black or "burnt") after it's been heated up. Looking forward to seeing it after you get the Ti wrap on. | ||
| Greg_e |
Probably not going to be until I really get sick of the burnt tan color because I don't want to spend all my time wrenching, if I wanted that I'd buy an old Harley. | ||
| Greg_e |
The Titanium stuff is here... It's kind of a golden greenish color. |
