Refinishing the Intake Manifold

The paint / coating on my 550's intake manifold is starting to chip and crack. As well the hood pad is starting to droop a little and touching the manifold as made apparent by the imprints on the pad.

It will be going in for a major service soon and I was hoping to get it refinished while it was apart.

Does anyone have the correct colour codes or process to retain the factory look?

Cheers

 

Bad motor mounts can cause the impressions on the pad you mention. Make sure the mounts have been updated to the 575 type.

 

Do you mean the red paint on the ribs?

I have assumed that the intakes are bare metal except for the red accents.

Saying that, I spotted the high-miles 575M manual that was discussed on here recently has come up for sale on the 'Bay and the intakes have taken on a slightly golden hue. Perhaps they have been 'cooked' after 126,000 miles but I wonder if it is just a film of oil and grime that could be cleaned off or if a more aggressive intervention would be required. Refreshing the red crackle paint on the cylinder head covers would be another non-essential cosmetic job to add to the to do list in due course...

2002 Ferrari 575 6 Speed Manual | eBay
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I believe the intakes are grayish / green wrinkle paint, not bare..

 

Affirmative, they are. Ask Dan at Bradan what they use. He is usually willing to help.

 

Tried and tried to get that paint. Company wanted me to be US distributor but no way to get it past EPA/Customs. I went back and forth without success getting one of the powder coating companies to formulate it. Nothing worked. The silver pigments just do not work with the wrinkle in powder coat. When new it was a very dull silver. It changes with heat etc. Best I have found is to powder coat red wrinkle and paint over with a very dull silver. Same finish dates back to 512BBi.

 

What's in it!?

 

Too many VOC's and almost certainly the wrong VOC's.

VOC's are volatile organic compounds, the thinners and base stocks in paint.

 

I was working to get the wrinkle paint that apparently the OEM uses from Italy.

They were happy to sell and ship to me but the cost was crazy and beyond crazy for the shipping.

 

Same company. Just try and get it in. They will sell you all you want but it won't get past customs.

 

Hmmm they probably don't know how to complete the paper work as I've gotten other coatings from overseas that were equally as hazardous without issue. But the stack of documents is pretty amazing....

 

There is another company in England, they and the Italian company are the only two known with a suitable silver wrinkle product. I am not the only one that has tried and in both cases the companies were involved in the effort to get the product past US Customs. It went on quite a while because that wrinkle silver has been wanted for some time for restoration efforts. A lot of people with a lot of importation experience have thrown up their hands over it.

You're right, it is very expensive stuff. They're pretty proud of it.

 

I've not tried the VHT silver. I'm not particulary a fan of their red as the color is not the same.

I'll see if I have the MSDS from the Italian manufacture and if so, I can have my coating manufacture review it and provide some insight. Perhaps I can also look into getting a product made - I'll have a chat with my manufacture after the holidays.

 

One of the powder coat suppliers has "Desert Red". It is very close to the original wrinkle red. I have never liked the VHT either and am a big fan of the powder coat because of the durability.

 

I just looked up my emails......no MSDS. The cost of 1 kg (approx 1 quart) was 150 euro (I believe that was also a price they offered me to test) and 600-700 euro for shipping plus another 100 euro for a wooden box to ship in :yikes:

 

Does the powder coat wrinkle? I have had textured PC done but it is not the same effect as the wrinkle - not bad though

I know a couple shops use VHT ant then apply a light coat of color over it for the proper tone.

 

They look the same colour as 355 throttle bodies, which CS hero Terry refinished by having some paint mixed in the correct colour and texture here 355 Engine Out Servicing - Part 2 - Page 7

 

There is PC wrinkle but in a very limited number of colors. As I understand it the pigments effect the wrinkle so silver has not worked. Black and a few reds are available. I get wrinkle red and overspray with silver. Have used Desert Red on a few award winning cars. The original red wrinkle aged and turned more orange so many copy the wrong color. Same with the silver.

 

I've removed that same coating from my 355 TB's and it was very time consuming.

My plan is (was?) to leave them bare. Appreciate Terry's efforts but IMO, that does not look very good.

I need to try the VHT silver.

 

They look nice but the texture and color is wrong.

 

Here is the textured PC I had done for my engine bay panels. It came out very well.
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John Cribb posted his efforts on his [550 "major" Major] thread on the other forum (start at the beginning circa 2013). I believe that he soda blasted everything and then plated some parts and powder coated (in black) the covers. Far from the OEM look but the end result would appear to have been done to a high standard.

 

John's work is excellent. The challenge in restoration, however, is matching the OEM. That can be very difficult without obtaining the same materials.

 

THIS.

I had the same issue on my 550, found that there was no way to obtain the original style silver paint for the manifold here in the US. Being that there was minimal damage to the actual structure of the original wrinkle paint (just a couple of chips) and the problem was color change, I did a very light scuffing of the OEM wrinkle with 1000 grit paper after a thorough degreasing and repainted with high temp cast aluminum paint. Looks quite nice (see my thread for photos).

 

Paint it red like 612!