[marvgarr68]

I got the pistons cut down .040 for 18-1 comp. I got ARP head studs and Mahle piston rings. I was going to have a shop ceramic coat the pistons but the shop is in Vegas and they want them for 5 days. I am not leaving my pistons for 5 days. They were going to charge me 160.00 just to ceramic coat the tops. They wanted another 120.00 to do the skirt coating. All that plus the gas to drive up there and back twice. I got a tester bottle of Cerakote piston coating oven cure and a tester bottle of micro slick piston skirt coating. Both bottles shipped are 82.00. I blasted the tops and the skirts with 120 grit aluminum oxide. I then sprayed the piston coating on them and then baked them at 300 deg. They came out great. The skirts came out good also. The skirts are air dry no baking needed. I didn't think the tester bottles would be enough but I hardly used any of the stuff still have 3/4 full bottles left.

For the shop to do pistons
280.00 to coat them
120.00 in fuel to drive there twice
plus 5 days for them to get damaged or lost
total 400.00 roughly

To do them myself
82.00 for coating
10.00 for 120 grit aluminum oxide 2 lbs
12.00 for masking tape
used my bosses oven and blaster cabinet
total 104.00 roughly plus beer
here are some pics