I was planning to have a Trueleo intake manifold for my 3.4L Fiero thoroughly refinished and smoothed out --- and then chrome plated --- but long story short, the chrome plating isn't going to happen.

As some of you know, a Trueleo intake manifold itself actually is constructed of steel, rather than aluminum. This particular Trueleo intake manifold likely will need some repair work on it with a product called "J-B Weld," and this manifold currently has on it what the would-be chrome plating shop calls their "95/5" tin solder coating (whatever that is).

I already am aware that a repair using J-B Weld cannot be chrome plated.

However, I don't know which of the following are feasible alternative options:

• Black Epoxy Paint, or
  
• Black Powder Coating, or
  
• Black Ceramic Coating

For my year-round, "daily driver" Fiero, which much too soon again will be subjected to winter snow and ratty cold winter temperatures, which of the 3 options that I've bullet pointed above make the most sense to you, in your opinion, regarding this particular Trueleo intake manifold?

Help!

You'll have to use epoxy paint, because the JB Weld won't be able to handle the temperature used to bake the powder coat or ceramic coating.

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: You'll have to use epoxy paint, because the JB Weld won't be able to handle the temperature used to bake the powder coat or ceramic coating.

Thank you for your input, especially since a local ceramic coating shop earlier told me, "We don't know that ceramic coating will work on this, but we can always try ceramic coating this intake manifold and see how it turns out."

I think I appreciate that shop's candor, but it wasn't exactly confidence-inspiring. Perhaps more importantly, I would guess (although I'm certainly no expert on this) that a botched ceramic coating job would be a colossal PITA to attempt to remove from a Trueleo intake manifold.

No problem. I've seen what happens to JB Weld when it's baked at 400F+, and it's not pretty.

Why not do the repair with metal instead of JB? Paint is very nice but powdercoat is so much nicer if the goal is a smooth flawless finish.

quote Originally posted by steve308:Why not do the repair with metal instead of JB? Paint is very nice but powder coat is so much nicer if the goal is a smooth flawless finish.

Yours is an interesting suggestion, and personally, I agree with you that powder coating this Trueleo intake manifold would seem to be aesthetically preferable to painting it.

In fact, the "smooth flawless finish" you mentioned initially was indeed my goal for this Trueleo intake manifold --- but that was for chrome plating it --- something the chrome plating shop essentially has now given up on.

The plan was, after a 95/5 tin/solder coating, to apply a substrate of copper to the manifold, before chroming it. Prior to applying any copper, the chrome plater made attempts to"seal off" any intake manifold openings so as to not get any copper inside the manifold. For example, a metal plate was created to in an attempt to seal off all the runner openings at the base of the Trueleo intake manifold. This, I'm told, was to help ensure no copper "leaking through" to the inside of the intake manifold --- a bad thing, because any copper inside the intake manifold would eventually "flake off" and be ingested by the engine, resulting in some major engine problems down the road.

Beyond that, I'm less clear on the details. However, as I understand it from the chrome plater, a pre-emptive check for potential leak sources for the copper was being checked out under very high pressure water. This apparently resulted in springing a few leaks, and when attempts to repair those leaks were made with metal, different leaks popped out under this high pressure.

Had I not attempted to have this intake manifold chrome plated in the first place, powder coating it would not have been a problem, and I believe is the standard finish on a Trueleo intake manifold.

Now maybe another shop would feel differently about this, but the would-be chrome plater felt that a metal-based repair would require "rewelding some welds," which he described as being unlikely to have much chance of success at this point.

Accordingly, that left me to consider a synthetic like J-B Weld for the aforementioned repairs, but I know J-B Weld cannot be chrome-plated. In turn, that is why I started this thread to ask about the feasibility of epoxy painting, ceramic coating, or powder coating this Trueleo intake manifold, which likely will be the recipient of some J-B Weld on it for repairs.

I would consider a few options:

1) ask truelo to repair it at your cost, they have the jigs to set it up.
2) sell it to someone who does not want to chrome it and buy another intake from truelo (specify welded for water tight seal under pressure, which it should be already)

3) Paint it, no need to epoxy paint it, but that is not going to be chrome so im not sure how this option goes with your color scheme.

I don't know why you'd want to use JB Weld on it. Any good welding shop can do the fix and for not all that much. If you were nearby, I could repair it with my MIG unit and I'm a rank amateur.

I'd say get it welded and then media blasted. You can then apply a ceramic paint that will do perfecty well in that application.

Arn

quote Originally posted by p8ntman442: I would consider a few options: 1) ask truelo to repair it at your cost, they have the jigs to set it up.

If that intake was sold as a regular powered coated intake we would be glad to fix it free. Likely it was either a prototype or had a vacuum leak that I could not get to weld and sold it with full notice of the epozy or JB weld fix. It could also be that someone tried to grind down a weld for a cleaner look and went too far. I pressure test every intake for leaks and weld any I find before they get shipped. If they dont hold pressure they dont get shipped whereas even a small vacuum leak can make for a high idle.

quote Originally posted by Francis T: If that intake was sold as a regular powered coated intake we would be glad to fix it free. Likely it was either a prototype or had a vacuum leak that I could not get to weld and sold it with full notice of the epozy or JB weld fix. It could also be that someone tried to grind down a weld for a cleaner look and went too far. I pressure test every intake for leaks and weld any I find before they get shipped. If they dont hold pressure they dont get shipped whereas even a small vacuum leak can make for a high idle.

To clarify matters for those following this thread...

1. There currently is no epoxy paint or J-B Weld on this Trueleo intake manifold. Those were just potential repair options suggested to me by the chrome shop that recently was working on it.
   
   
2. I remember Francis T describing to me his pressure testing of this intake manifold prior to his shipment of it to me. I don't fault him for the difficulties I've encountered.
   
   
3. This particular Trueleo intake manifold is a one-off, custom prototype created and pictured by Francis T about 6 months ago in bare metal form on page 29 of the long-running thread, "hi-flo manifold update."

Those pictures of this one-off, custom prototype Trueleo intake manifold which Francis T created are reproduced below:

quote Originally posted by Francis T: Not a new product, but here's a few pictures of a special order prototype intake I made for a customer. It is in bare metal as he wants to have it chrome plated and it still needs some more sanding etc.. I wasn't going to post anything on it whereas it turned out to take way more time to build than I thought and thus we won't be offering it since it would be out of most peoples' price range. But it is interesting and has some neat features, one of which is 30%+ more plenum volume even thoght it don't look like it. It is also about 5/8" lower. The runners are still the same lenght & retain velocity stacks, thus the flow should be just as good.

Hopefully, these pictures will help others better understand why I'm so interested in salvaging this one-off intake manifold.

If it were me, I'd have it coated.
Either Trueleo's coating or www.headercoatings.com (which happens to be local to me) or Jet Hot (which seems to be more expensive than the place near me.)
After you have it coated, fix the leaks with JB weld. Buy some paint (I have even seen "chrome" paint in rattle cans.) and touch up the repairs.
FWIW, the "headercoatings" place charged me $160 to coat a Y-pipe and to recoat a set of Sprints.

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Raydar
88 4.9 Formula IMSA Fasback..........................88 3.4 coupe -soon to be something other than red

Read Nealz Nuze! Praise the Lowered!

Just made some suggestions in the post covering this issue -hi flo update- I would like to state, we dont test for vacuum leaks with high pressue water ever. An intake is just not going to see high pressure or high vacuum numbers. Even under hard engine braking youre looking at what, 30+" ?

If you've got pin hole leaks or small cracks I'd silver solder them. grind/sand smooth, then powder coat