Couple questions, what's the finish on the engine bar? Painted or bare metal? Next would be the color of the blower hoses from the exchangers to the ducts; orange or black? What is the closest high temp paint you found to match the factory color of the exhaust system; muffler & exchangers? The branch pieces; I seen grey and black. What year did they change; mid 73?
Just as a side note, I found a Powder company that will make an exact match of the factory tin color. $100 to develope, $15-$25 per pound with an intial minimum of 5 lbs. If there is enough intested to cover the development cost of the color match, I'd be happy to send in the tin for matching. Say 4 or 5 people to keep the cost down.

Hey Tod, depending on the price I would be interested in getting my engine tin done, but it would only happen later this year (winter) when I drop the motor for detail. PM me with info if you can.

As far as exhaust system paint, George from AA says to use the Wurth zinc paint (im not sure the exact name) but I know I can get it through work.

For the branch pieces, they may have changed over the years? I've seen mostly black, but if you've seen grey then thats a possibility.

No matter how I prep the surface, the Wurth Zinc will not adhear right. I can scratch it off with my finger. I even tried using heat lamps on it.

How are you prepping it?

Ditto on how you're prepping? Also, SS HE's won't take the paint as well. Wurth Zinc I thought was too silver undertone, but maybe I'm recalling wrong. There was also a 356 Resto website (whose bookmark I lost when the replaced my harddrive) which sold the Porsche exhaust system color grey in HT paint.

My 73 engine bar has black paint on it - where it's not surface rusted that is!

IIRC the HE tubes were/are brown Kraft paper crap, & HE ducts themselves were grey like the stock HE's & muffler color. Someone else posted a flat/satin grey HE paint match for HE's & Mufflers at another post under O&E.

Also look at Sahara Steve's post pix from the underside, as his VIN is late 73 & close to yours IIRC.

If not for the distance & the fact that my drivetrain is nowhere near ready to pull off tin yet - I'd go for the PC deal - but maybe you could post the mix source here, for the rest of us to try to source locally.

Well, had the piece sandblasted. Then sanded it down with 300 & cleaned it with Dupont metal prep/cleaner as per directions and washed off the piece. I tried the Wurth zinc primer in the past, with the same results. Tom, there are 2 types. One that is flat silver and the other which is like a flat grey; aprox RGB value of 150 165 163 if you want to bring it up in your MS Paint to see what it looks like.
I tried the Ford Grey Engine Enamel in the past on some duct parts. It's pretty close, but not quite right. For the runners it's too dark and too glossy.

I think this is the one some of the 356 guys recco'd for 914 exhaust paint:
http://www.nlaparts.com/store/exhaust-grey-paint-p-653.html

There was also some links on your FI Tube paint color post, which went to a VW resto site, that also listed exhaust/muffler colors, which should be the same or close for 914s as well, them being VW-Porsche JV products!

Doesn't sound like the Wurth prime is "wurth" the big bucks! It could be not enough "tooth" for it to grab onto with 300 grit, but ...... scratch it off with your fingernail doesn't sound right!!??

Couple of answers here.......

The bars were not painted. Why, I can't figure. I have veered from that & painted mine. BTW, anyone need a nicely finished side shifter bar?

Engine tin. Redid mine in '88 (that's right). Had all the parts bead blasted & solvent prepped & primed them the same day with Rust-Oleum primer (that's right). Let them cure for 2 weeks & painted them with Rust-Oleum satin black. Yeah, I know, it isn't Factory, though no one could tell me what Factory was. All I know is, 22 years later the tin still looks great. Worked for me, but the key is solvent prepping before priming.

I still say no to powder coating. The finished look is too rough.

Forget about painting SSE's. They were never engineered to be painted & virtually nothing will stick when heat is applied. Enjoy the shiney finish.

Branch pieces - I wasn't aware that they ever changed the color, though I've been proven wrong before. The J-tubes and connections should be satin black. Crossover pieces should be gray, like the muffler. Ford gray works well, but won't take the heat. So, here again, I go to RustOleum high temp light gray. Once again, not Factory....whatever that was.

For the intake runners, do a search on this site. Someone nailed it about 2 years go. Think it was a VW paint, but search.
Pat

Tom & Pat, I'm about to order a can of the Dove Grey & Grey Black from Wolfsburg. I recieved some powder coat samples that are also close. The PC guy told me he can add flattner to it. I tested out quite a few different types of paint. Later this summer, I'll post all the color samples so you guys can determine which ones works for you and save you a few bucks. I seen Rustoleum has a 500 degree cold galvanize primer and a 2000 degree grey primer. I'll get those as well. One of these will choices should get close enough to the factory color. The Ford grey can be had in high temp engine enamel from quite a few different paint manufactures. It's very close to the original Boge shock color; just a tad lighter.

Tod - you may also want to see if this VHT in this or another grey 1500 degree paint which matches the OE exhaust color grey:
http://www.automotion.com/product.asp?pf_i...mp;dept_id=4083

I think they also sell VHT at your local auto parts stores &/or Home Depot/etc.
http://www.vhtpaint.com/flameproof.html

Thanks Tom, Looks like that's SP106 on their label; Flat silver. I have the SP100 and SP104. They are lighter than the color on the cap. Very good paints though. I'll see if I can find that one locally and test it out.