Hot Stuff!

Here's an easy, inexpensive, and pretty quick project, that looks good IMO. The JBA 3" cat-back exhaust on the Bullitt sported a silver aluminized coating. This coating looks good for a while, but does rust over time. From the rear of the car, the pipes look just huge, and I'd prefer them to blend a bit more.

So, I decided to scuff down the cat-back pipes and paint them satin black. I used VHT Satin Black Engine Enamel over some Duplicolor Engine Enamel Primer (that I had on hand). I'd consider using the VHT without primer if I didn't have high-heat resistant primer.

In the foreground is the aluminized pipe after cleaning only.
In the background is a cleaned, primed, and painted pipe.

Within a couple hours I drove the car over 200 miles, in the rain at times, and the paint didn't flake or discolor.

The pipes blend in better under the car when they are black.

Update 11/06/2011: After 2,000 miles of driving, here are a couple pix of the painted cat-back exhaust pieces.

The tailpipes remain black (albeit dirty from driving in the rain).

But the mufflers and pipes before the mufflers are burning up the paint. A little disappointing.

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Freshening the Gearbox

Just a quick update from the '66. The T5Z was in nice shape and had fewer than 10k miles on it. But it was leaking due to age affecting the silicone. The Worx disassembled and inspected it, cleaned everything up, replaced the tail shaft bushing and seal, and let me put a coat of silver paint on it before reassembly. The new Steeda Tri-Ax short shifter is sitting on top.

This Tremec T5Z was bought new by the previous owner.

We used The Right Stuff silicone in grey to reseal the case.

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