More than just an appearance coating, ceramic provides corrosion resistance and a thermal barrier while maintaining a show-car shine. Whether applied to mild steel, aluminized steel, or stainless steel, ceramic coating is the ultimate finish for the perfectionist in us all.
Here's how it works. Finished exhaust components are cooked in an oven for one hour to burn off oils leftover from manufacturing. Next, the pipes are media blasted inside and out to remove oxidation, corrosion, and rust. Once blasted, the pipes are dipped in a series of chemical baths to prepare the surface for coating. Dry pipes are brushed internally and sprayed externally using a liquid ceramic coating. After curing in a controlled environment, pipes are baked in an oven at temperatures exceeding 500°. Once cooled, pipes are polished in a giant tumbler.
Our blend of ceramic coating combines pure ceramic with raw aluminum. The finish resembles polished aluminum. While not a mirror finish, bright enough to shine. Check out the reflections in the pictures below. This finish will dull slowly over time, but can be maintained by hand polishing with basic metal polish. The finish will never change colors or turn brown like stainless steel.
The major benefit to ceramic coating is corrosion protection. No other coating can withstand temperatures this high without flaking, peeling, or melting. Our blend or ceramic coating has been tested to withstand 6500 hours of salt spray.
Being able to withstand high temperatures means more than just coating life. Ceramic coated exhaust pipes lower under-hood temperatures by hundreds of degrees. When coated inside and out, exhaust gases give up less heat to the metal maintaining the velocity of the exhaust gases. Studies have shown 5% increases in HP and torque. We're not going that far, but every bit helps. Our coating can withstand 1300° metal temperatures and 1600° exhaust gases.
Convinced? You don't have to be.
Ceramic coating can be applied at any time during the life of an exhaust system.
Here's how it works:
- When placing an order for your exhaust system, please order the corresponding ceramic coating with your system. Pricing is listed below for all systems. Order buttons can be found within the product category of your exhaust system or by clicking the links below.
- Once ordered and ready for shipping, your downpipe will be delivered to our coating shop. From there our shop gets to work on your system. The process itself, described above, takes 3-4 days to complete. Accounting for transportation times and any cue at the coating shop, your system will take 7-14 business days to complete
- Once returned to 42, gaskets and any additional hardware are added and your system is shipped to your doorstep.
Why is the wait so long?
The ceramic coating process itself takes 3-4 days to complete. It's infinitely more than a quick paint job. Accounting for transportation times and any cues at the coating shop, we have to estimate our turn-around times high. Realistically, it could happen as fast as 5 business days. We could also have the system you need coated in stock. While it would be impossible for 42 to stock all of our exhaust products ceramic coated, at times we will have complete systems available. Shoot us an email to ask about coated stock.
How does pricing work?
Please see the price chart below to find pricing for the system or component of your choice. Our pricing is based solely on coating cost and transportation expenses. Accounting for occasional variances, our price passes only the raw cost onto you, the customer. Thanks to the relationship we have with our coating shop we are able to bring you (total) pricing that's unbeatable. A non-profit thanks, if you will.
click any of the links below to order the coating of your choice
A note about the wait time
In order to be brutally honest, we need to let you in on how things work at our level. When an exhaust system is ordered, typically there's a wait time until it can ship to you, the customer. This wait time isn't logistics, it's demand. 42 is powered by a professional team of fabricators that work long days building a long list of products with countless options. 9 times out of 10 when a system is ordered it's not "in stock" in a box on the shelf. Your order is added to the realistically constant cue and your system is completed as soon as possible. Sometimes a day, sometimes a week, depending on what's delaying production. Most of the time what holds up an order could be a single component, an outside supplier, or a welder out sick. Regardless of what specific detail holds up a system, the reality of the delay never changes. Maybe we're too meticulous? Perfection takes time, after all.
Once a system is ready to ship, we hand it off to UPS. Our coating shop is 1 day away, but realistically the shipment takes 3 days. The box sits on our dock for a day, travels for a day, and arrives on the dock of our coating shop the next. Once a system arrives at our coating shop, it enters their cue.
Like 42, our coating shop is a small group of dedicated professionals working hard. They aren't running a 24x7 ceramic coating production line of 42 products. They are ceramic coating and finishing products received using a variety of techniques. When our shipments arrive they are scheduled promptly and begin the preparation process. The coating process takes 3-4 working days if everything goes as planned. There's a significant amount of human labor involved in the process - blasting, cleaning, masking, spraying, and final polishing. The human element strikes again. Once a system is completely finished, it heads back on the UPS truck and is shipped to you, the customer.
The point of this little blurb is not to ask for sympathy. We want you, the customer to understand the process in the event that our turnaround time becomes much longer. Sometimes the turnaround time is immediate. Sometimes, every little thing that could possibly holds up the process... does. We're fighting to provide the best service we possibly can. Every week we make improvements to better stock our growing product line. We have a constant stream of systems heading to the ceramic coating shop in an attempt to create an inventory of coated systems. Before ordering, check out our ceramic coated inventory page to see what we currently have on the shelf.
Last but not least, we ask one thing: Please do not purchase a ceramic coated system with an immediate deadline. If you have a deadline to meet, please contact us to discuss the availability of the system you need within the deadline. Even if our website says it's all in stock, please contact us if you have a deadline. Murphy's law!
We hope this doesn't discourage you from trying our ceramic coating. We basically laid out the worst case scenario where a ceramic coated system would "take forever," surely disappointing you. In any case, communication is important. Call us or email us, if we don't email you first.
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