1958 Exhaust Questions

[Harry L.]

I am helping a friend restore a '58 290 HP Fuelie and the question about correct exhaust comes up. Can anyone shed light on the proper preparation of exhaust Manifolds, and whether or not the Exhaust pipes should be painted or not? If they are painted, what are the proper materials / method to do it correctly? What about the same question for exhaust manifolds?
I know the JG says exhaust maniflolds "were painted engine color (either full or partial)". We can't imagine having fully painted "orange" exhaust manifolds.

Any help will be appreciated.

[Joe L.]

Re: 1958 Exhaust Questions

I am helping a friend restore a '58 290 HP Fuelie and the question about correct exhaust comes up. Can anyone shed light on the proper preparation of exhaust Manifolds, and whether or not the Exhaust pipes should be painted or not? If they are painted, what are the proper materials / method to do it correctly? What about the same question for exhaust manifolds?
I know the JG says exhaust maniflolds "were painted engine color (either full or partial)". We can't imagine having fully painted "orange" exhaust manifolds.

Any help will be appreciated.

Harry------


As far as the manifolds were concerned, these early engines did have the manifolds painted with the rest of the engine. There may have been small portions of the manifolds that did not receive paint, but they were mostly painted. Of course, the paint on the manifolds did not really last very long as it was ordinary engine paint and burned off rather quickly at exhaust manifold temperatures.

You may now be able to obtain some very high heat-resistant paints that would survive manifold heat. Just how close in color such paint would be to the original paint used is another matter. Also, I would expect that the paint on the manifolds would discolor somewhat compared to the paint on the rest of the engine. So, even if one obtained paint that would survive the heat, I doubt that it would appear "exactly as it came from the factory" for very long.

I think that manifold painting exactly as original would be more appropriate for "trailer queen" type cars. For driven cars, I wouldn't really bother trying to achieve that level of originality. I'm sure there are lots of top flight C1's that were not seen for judging with painted manifolds.

As far as the rest of the exhaust system is concerned, C1 Corvettes did have more extensive chassis blackout than most later models. I don't know how that applies to the exhaust pipes and mufflers, though. In any event, even if the exhaust was painted, most of it would not have survived very long, either.

[Keith R.]

Re: 1958 Exhaust Questions

There was a post not too far back that showed pics from the engine line and the exhaust manifolds were painted right along with the engine. It's also my understanding the the pipes probably received some blackout but as Joe says, it probably burnt right off.