Painting Radiator Tubes

[Nebula93]

I was thinking about spray painting the black tubes from my radiator to match my color scheme.

Anyone tried this before?

Is there a certain type of spray paint that would work better than others?

Do we think spray painting radiator tubes would hurt the tubing?

 

[Deleted member 184142]

What are the tubes made of? Have you thought about sleeving them?

 

[MrGreg62]

If you are referring to the hoses I would not paint them. It may look okay for a week or two but then as the tubing expands and contracts even the minuscule amount they do with temperature change the paint will start to crack and look like crap. If however you're referring to the fins and tubing of the actual radiator itself have at it. Extra paint may increase the temp a fraction of degree but not enough to worry about.

 

[Nobu]

If you use a good plastic/acrylic paint it probably wouldn't crack. Couldn't tell you how it'd effect the durability or flexibility, though. I brushed acrylic artist's paint onto a short section of black primochill tubes to see how it'd look--I haven't been using them, but they flex fine. They're a little more rigid, but a 2-inch radius bend is still fine. Edit: Just be sure you do a few coats, and at least let it dry until it's tacky before applying another, or else it'll be too thin and will crack or may bubble up.