Rep Power: 181

Just making some cheap mods to my car for starters...

I'm just curious what everyone would think looks better on my mostly stock D17A2.
Should I leave the heat shield on the header?
Or would it look better with the heat shield removed and the header painted flat black?

I feel it would be pointless to chrome the tiny stock pipes, so those are my two options. What do you guys think?

 
Rep Power: 293

I'd paint or polish the heat shield. I've seen a few nice ones in black and almost mirror like (hard to maintain that way though).

 
Rep Power: 313

I painted mine flat black. It looked cool for a week. Like max said way too much maintenance.

 
Rep Power: 181

Thanks, I'll just leave it the way it is. The heat shield looks fairly new and shiny still. I was just wondering if a bare header (painted) would be more attractive than the heat shield.

 
Rep Power: 313

It probably would but that heat shield does serve some functionality. It protects your alternator from the radiant heat that the header gives off and some other stuff too. If your going to leave it exposed get it ceramic coated or wrapped. But in all honestly I'd just leave it as it is. The only reason I painted mine is because I had to replace it because of this:



I'm hoping the paint will protect it enough so that it won't rot out as fast. If it gets to that state it vibrates like crazy and makes a racket.

 
Rep Power: 181

Thanks! Polished up the heat shield and decided it acutally looks nice as is. I used my paint on some exhaust components instead to get use from my $4 paint can