Cerakote - DIY and Tips

A little discussion came from this thread about Cerakote and ceramic coating, thought it would be worthwhile having a dedicated topic.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/project-fr-s-adding-a-turbo-t/166641/page1/

Cerakote seems to have widespread use in the gun coating market, but doesn't seem to have really taken off in automotive as much.  The parent company NIC also owns Prismatic Powders, which is a very well known name in that market.

Where it gets interesting for GRMers: Cerakote offers air-cure ceramic coatings, at fairly reasonable cost.  $70 per pint, which should cover several manifolds or headers.

COATINGS:

Cerakote also offers a ton of differnt colors and types, their shop site is a little hard to navigate.

These are the air-cure coatings that have 1800*F heat rating:

https://www.cerakote.com/shop/cerakote-coating?cure=cera_air&temp=cera_1800

Glacier Black Example:

https://www.cerakote.com/shop/cerakote-coating/C-7600/cerakote-glacier-black

APPLICATION:

The application guide below states parts need to be cleaned and blasted with basically anything EXCEPT glass beads, de-gased with a 300*F bake and obviously clean of grease and oils.  So prep is essentially the same as with powdercoating. Then it is simply sprayed on with an HVLP with 0.8mm tip:

https://images.nicindustries.com/cerakote/documents/210/c-series-air-cure-dt20200224164935863.pdf?1582562977

TESTING:

Regular cerakote holds up very well to corrosion, at least based on what Cerakote is publishing. It would be interesting to see data on long term durability and efficiency of their high temp coatings:

https://www.cerakote.com/resources/testing

https://www.cerakote.com/resources/cerakote-vs-other-coatings

EXAMPLES

I found out about the air cure coating from this channel, he's been around the Mitsubishi Autocross world for a long time and knows his stuff.  He used an airbrush detail gun to apply it:

I have some Glacier Black air-cure I need to try out on some turbine housings and manifolds, will report back with results.

I'm VERY curious about this. Thanks for sharing!

That poor Stealth owner....

I used a chrome-ish colored one to coat the drag pipes on Dr.Linda's Sportster years ago.  It was the air dry kind, and per the makers it got harder the hotter it got.  They sold it for machine gun barrels.  I had some flaking as I don't think I go the pipes clean enough before application.

_ said:

That poor Stealth owner....

This is the poor stealth owner:

http://farnorthracing.com/

He did OK in SCCA  Autocross. Well, enough such that SM class was basically created in part due to him.

In reply to engiekev :

That guy makes me want another Stealth.

I'm also interested in the Creakote. I might give it a go next time I do that kind of work.

I used to have a powdercoating shop and shot a ton of the stuff. I'm proud to say that Cerakote used pictures of my work on their site back in the day (watermarked Ayers Garage). It's fantastic stuff but it does not tolerate sloppy application or applying it contrary to directions. That's been about 10 years back now.

In reply to Cousin_Eddie :

How would you say the air-cure coatings work compared to oven-cure? Seems like oven-cure would be the way to go but air-cure parts should eventually "heat cure" when they got hot on the vehicle. Similar to how the VHT spray can stuff is "air cure" but then heat cures when it gets hot.