Did anyone ever chrome their fenderwell headers in the early 60's? I've seen a ton with white, and even a few with blue and red, but havnt seen any cars with chrome. I'm building a '55 and was thinking chrome would be cool too, but I want it to be period correct
you might try getting them ceramic coated. The finish should stay nice and it supposedly helps with heat.
I have heard of folks getting there headers Ceramic coated after chroming to preserve the shine and so they will not blue or discolor. Anyone here done this, seems kinda pricey but cool is not cheap, I guess...
From my memory in the So Cal area, only "Show Boats" had Chrome headers, like 2old2fast said - if it don't go, chrome it. Plus chrome on hard running drag cars will look like crap pretty quick Racers didn't care and the main reason white was used was White VHT lasted the longest. The other big thing was to Aluminize them, which has rough aluminum oxide coating that almost looked metallic - that was the Sheet!
I sure like SmokinBill's 56! check out the 55 in the most recent Hotrod Magazine...ceramic coated and they look great. but did they ever get hot?
Ceramic will hold up fine if the "Tune" is right - problem is it is NOT Gasser Era Correct and looks out of place in my mind.
ceramic coating the interior not only helps preserve the header itself, and whatever finish you have on the outside, but also increases the velocity of the exhaust by holding in the heat.
Couple of problems, first you must build the tubes just tacked together at the flange and collector. then bust it apart to have the tubes polished that way the plater can get into the insides. then you have to weld it all up again and have the welds polished. then it goes into the chrome process, even then if the tubes touch each other or the tubes going into the collector are too deep it will start to rust there first because the chrome wont throw in that area and will look like crap. better to paint or coat them
I guess white powder coating is a good choice? I have had several silver and one black sets ceramic coated and they held up great.
To answer the question...NO In the early 60s the only thing we had was VHT header spray bomb paint. It was a big deal at that time. Yes it came in colors but white soon became the standard. It worked as good then as it does today...not very good for the long term. As I understand it header tubes like wheels need to be polished before assembly and then it can be chromed. There was no way to get a satisfactory polish once they were assembled. It was much later that the header manufacturers offered chromed headers from their factories. It was well into the 70s before aluminizing became popular which gave the white look but lasted a long time and could be touched up with the VHT spray bombs. I made these headers and had them aluminized....state of the art for 1976ish. If I were building a period gasser clone, I'd get them aluminized for the VHT look. The modern ceramic coating don't look good to my antique eyes. The headers were white my hair was brown.
I think that'd be an accurate choice; my runner around '66 was a '35 Ford 5W, w/Vette sbc and 'build'em yourself' Cyclone fenderwells running 'light to light.' I painted them VHT type black, and often, to keep them looking as clean as the rest of the car.
you got to go with Tommy here. He's got good taste and experiance. Rust was always a problem with VHT. But we didn't know much about prep in those days. Just kept shooting more over the rust spots. Maybe the aluminized coating and than VHT on top of that would hold up and still look right, like the flat white of the VHT?
No. Powder coating is done at around 250 degrees, so every time you fire the engine up the coating would get sticky again. Needs to be ceramic or painted.
I had cereamic coating on mine for 3 years......Their still pretty good, lots of passes and a little street. If they were chrome they would be very blue at the flanges at this time
The aluminizing held up real well as is but after a few years rust stains would show up anyplace that water could get into a crack to the base metal. A quick spits-spits hides the stain and blended well. Just a touch up. The knew rust stain removers might do the same trick too.
I was planning on using the VHT white. I like the look, And seems to last longer than black. Im gonna sand blast um for a bit of texture, wax & grease remover, and spray. Hop they stay decent for a bit Ceramic coated is a nice way to go, But out of my budget.
The old headers that I have on my Henry J were chromed back in the 60s. They came off a 65 chevy II gasser. They were beautiful when I put them on the car. Almost 8,000 miles later... they don't look as great.
The headers on my dad's 55 are painted with VHT white. We are budget builders and the white VHT meets the budget and looks great. I don't care so much that the chrome discolors over time. My biggest problem with chrome headers, are they get f***ing hot! And they hold the heat. I have too many burns on my arms and hands from those chrome headers... they will really melt your skin.
Do NOT Powder Coat ~ it won't hold up to the heat. Embee Performance in Santa Ana CA will White Ceramic them for you though. They do look good, but they don't look "period Correct" - Ceramic wasn't available in the "Classic Gasser" era. Same as you Tommy, just used to hit the Aluminized with a bit of VHT and they looked like new again. Don't forget VHT Blue was very popular (at least in So Cal) for a while. I honestly think it held up the Best of all the colors.
Sorry, I should have said "white ceramic", not "white powder coat". I don't guess I have seen any around here that were white ceramic, any on here have them or pics??
I have heard that some Duesenbergs had ceramic coated headers. Someone said something to the effect of "We had to put wet rags on the headers so they ceramic wouldn't crack. Unfortunately I cannot find a decent source for that, so I have to take it with a grain of salt. My guess is that Jay Leno and about seven other people could answer confirm this.