Anyone who’s ever had a set of headers rust out on them and vowed, “never again” has probably heard of Jet-Hot High Performance Coatings – their work has become the benchmark for high temperature protection and thermal management in the automotive aftermarket. But, no matter who you turned to for header coatings, you pretty much were stuck with a very limited range of colors – black, silver, or red.

Today, the situation is much different, thanks to a lot of hard work behind the scenes at Jet-Hot. We talked to Gordon McGilton about the new color palette, and he gave us some insight into the 31 new hues offered in Jet-Hot’s Extreme 1300 line. Not only are customers now able to select shades to match their engine bay motif – they can also add graphics with the same freedom afforded by paint.

“Any design that you can cut with a vinyl cutter can be masked and applied with Extreme 1300,” McGilton explained. “Flames, company logos, even fades are all possible.”

Taking the Heat

Depending on what temperatures are anticipated, Jet-Hot offers several different header coatings:

• Extreme 1300 – 31 different colors, withstands skin temperatures of up to 1,300 degrees F
• Extreme 2000 – Tolerates skin temps as high as 2,000 degrees F, limited colors
• Extreme 2500 – Improved insulating qualities. Good for up to 2,500 degrees F, limited colors

McGilton points out that for applications where temperatures will likely exceed the 1300 degree range, Extreme 2000 or 2500 can be used as a “base coat” to reduce skin temperatures to the point where a color top coat of Extreme 1300 can be successfully applied.

Jet-Hot also takes pride in the level of customer service they provide – Per McGilton, they can even do one-day turnaround on coating customer parts, if required. “The guy who’s just spent thousands of dollars on a custom set of headers, then has to box them up and send them off for coating doesn’t want to wait weeks to get them back, wondering the whole time if they’re safe,” he explains. “We have three facilities now, and want to expand into all the major market areas so that most of our customers will be able to bring in their parts directly and not have to ship them.”

While that may be a way off in the future, we’re impressed with Jet-Hot’s commitment to serve the enthusiast community and keep the same reputation for quality that’s made them such a popular choice.