Spray painting stainless steel...?

[blacktop™]

Hi guys,

I'm in the market for a new exhaust but I want it to look as close to stock as possible. So my plan is to buy one with twin tips on either side but I want to paint the mufflers and Y-pipe in a dark grey colour so it's not super shiny from behind.

Has anyone painted stainless steel before? What sort of paint should I be using? I'm guessing some sort of heat resistant paint. Would any other preparation be necessary to keep the paint from flaking etc?

Cheers
Ryan

[Boxer]

Will definitely need prepping first - etch primer, but I haven't seen a high temp etch primer before?

[blacktop™]

Thanks

If there is in fact high temp etch primer would I just spray that straight onto the stainless and then spray over that?

[Kevlar GT]

Might need to clean with prepsol or similar to remove any grease/dust etc and then it should be straight on.

[ROB-80E]

Must sand/roughen the surface!

As for Etch primer....I know it works and is a must for alloy, but not sure about stainless. A good sand, some quality primer and matt paint...you can't go wrong. I prefer 2 pack paints compared to acrylics as they aren't as heat sensitive and down break down as easy.

[05GTLIBERTY]

Give a good sand with 320 dry use a 2pak etch primer and paint in 2pak. Anything acrylic will melt on exhaust

[blacktop™]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I think I've got enough information to do it now

Cheers

[rickerty]

As drastic as it may sound I would sandblast & prepsol it to make sure you get a good bond between the substrate and first coat.
Just a thought

[coyote]

The only benefit of stainless is that it is shiny. Mild steel will be a heavier gauge, so sounds better and retains more heat. So if you don't want shiny, just get mild steel and paint that.

Neither is going to rust given the exhaust temps you can expect.