How hot can Hammerite go...

[orange_dodo]

As you may have read in a previous thread I'm currently de-rusting, cleaning and generally sprucing up my engine bay whilst the rocker covers are off for a little tappet adjustment.

I was planning on painting the exhaust manifolds in very high temperature paint (for obvious reasons) and the rocker covers in Hammerite as they don't get quite as hot and I thought this had been done before by others. I was also going to paint the alternator mount in Hammerite but after taking it out I realise that part of it clamps over the manifold so must get pretty damn hot.

So basically my question is what can you Hammerite and what needs VHT paint? I was going to paint the alternator bracket black anyway so I think I'll just use VHT paint but it got me wondering about the rocker covers. I read somewhere that Hammerite shouldn't be used on anything that is too hot to touch but that's practically the entire engine bay on an S!

[GreenV8S]

My alternator mount and rocker covers are both painted, not in anything special, they're both fine. The exhaust manifolds are painted in 'Black Satin' ceramic paint allegedly good for about 700C which is looking decidedly crinkly.

[phillpot]

Sprayed rocker covers with "touch up paint" and alt. bracket with general purpose gloss black from car accessory shop. So far so good, have no doubts about r/covers but wouldn.t be surprised if paint on bracket fails eventually near exhaust

[clarenceboddiger]

phillpot said:

Sprayed rocker covers with "touch up paint" and alt. bracket with general purpose gloss black from car accessory shop. So far so good, have no doubts about r/covers but wouldn.t be surprised if paint on bracket fails eventually near exhaust

Same here

[ketvrin]

Yep same for rocker box covers... I painted the alternator bracket with red hammerite and it blackened in no time. Its now painted with Matt Black VHT paint for the leg that clamps to the manifold but red hammerite for the front facing part around/below the alternator... so far so good

K

[orange_dodo]

Thanks everyone. Well I'll stop worrying about the rocker covers then and just paint them. As I was going to paint the alt' bracket black anyway I'll just paint it with the VHT stuff. Only thing I thought might be a disadvantage is that the VHT paint is so thin compared to Hammerite so might not give great rust protection but it's not exactly difficult to get off and redo.

I won't reveal my colour scheme just yet incase it looks like a yak has thrown up on my engine

[Barkychoc]

I have found to my cost that brake fluid strips VHT paint straight off if you need to remove it!

[GreenV8S]

Barkychoc said:

I have found to my cost that brake fluid strips VHT paint straight off

Brake fluids strips just about everything off, it's a very effective paint stripper.

[phillpot]

Barkychoc said:

I have found to my cost that brake fluid strips VHT paint straight off if you need to remove it!

Can have its uses e.g. stripping paint off plastic/rubber etc. where Nitromors or similar would be damage item.

Few years ago (about 15) when I last had a "hobby car" Silicone brake fluid was going to be The Future, one reason being because it didn't attack paintwork ! Doesn't seem to have caught on too well ?