I can't say much now because my alliance membership just ended last week, but, Matt also gives free shipping, or at least a credit towards the cost of shipping. You will get tired of painting them As Beno said, VHT is decent stuff. I built the set of Lake headers for my old Tudor and painted them with white VHT. I experienced good results from them as long as they stay somewhat clean. Getting oil slung on them from an oil breather cap, etc kind of stains them. I also noticed that it is kind of a powdery soft finish, not hard like normal paint. IF you drag a screw driver or your wrench on them they scratch extremely easy. Use VHT, do a couple two or three coats, let it dry good and use clean oil free hands handling them and you will do really good with it. I would sure as hell use it again before I paid over $400 with shipping for a coating. Also, you could leave them bare metal and treat them occasionally with the gibbs oil. I built a set from speedway last year and they got a little surface rust sitting and so I treated them with a little scotchbrite and gibbs a couple of months ago and they look great sitting in the shop.
Don't blow Sanderson off just yet. Their quality is great and super thick flanges. Mine are close to ten years old and the coating still looks great. They even fit my new angle plug heads. Don't forget I have an extra set of brand new turnouts for $50 each and they're even coated, heck I'll even pay the shipping in the lower 48!
His are black. They didn't come out midnight in the cypress swamp black more of a charcoal. There are a couple of pictures on this thread but I am having trouble getting them to load this morning. They are pics that jim marlet took this year @ Mokan. They are not the color you are looking for but it will give you an iedea about longevity of the finish. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=745859 We had a set of headers ceramic coated locally and they really screwed them up. That is not the cas with everyone but it is good reason to make sure that you find a good ceramic coater if you decide to go that route.
If it's the white turtledeck, I like that. Actually, that color has it's benifits. With my chrome ones, sometimes oil would drip on them. If the pipes were warm, it would leave a spot in the chrome. If they were still hot and I leaned over them and dripped sweat, I'd have to get it off quickly. Fingerprints, even when the tubes were cold, marked the chrome, if not wiped up right away. I always had to remember to wipe my headers down after I got done working on my car. Some of the tubes were so close together that it was impossible to clean in between them and if humidity got in there they would start to rust, unless I wiped them down. I never could get it all and rust was starting to develope. So, a dark or maybe medium shade of gray would suit me fine. It's not that I'm lazy, but I get tired of having to "tip toe" when ever I work on my car. A dark color can look good and be beneficial. It will have a "purpose built" look. I'll miss my chrome pipes, but I won't miss all the trouble they were to keep clean.
I have a Heddman weld it myself kit for my lakes headers, so I will be building them myself for my 26 RPU and Y Block. And they will be built right in my garage. I bought the SBF kit and a pair of 3/8" laser cut Y Block flanges from ebay. After I'm done they will be ceramic coated ,we have a local powder coater who does good work here. Probably they will find a place on my build thread when I get to them.
do a search on Sanderson. you will see i have had a lot of problems with mine. sanderson tried to make it better and sold me a set of Jakesters cheaper but they also broke the same way that yours did but i was 600 miles from home..
I took the headers that came with my A when I bought it-don't know whose but they seemed very solid and only surface rust-and had them Jet-Hot coated about 5 years ago. I was, and continue to be, very pleased with the work and appearance. JMTC
Jet Hot while a little pricey for my taste is the absolute best on the market as far as I am concerned, they seem to have a good turnaround, the finish if any of them I have been around is impecable and they are durable as all get out.
Just to set you straight - I have been in the header business for almost 20 years now, and NOT ONE header company that I have been associated with, or know of has any automated welding being done on their headers. Vance & Hines in the motorcycle pipe business does use robotic welders, but I have yet to see an automotive header company that does. Yeah, we turn out about 100 sets of headers a day - but it takes about 150 people to do that! As for pricing, a set of Patriot Raw Lakesters are right at $475 from Summit with usually free shipping, and I think they charge about $50 for the turnouts so it's comparable. And if you order them ceramic coated it's only about $150 more, a hell of a lot less than paying Jet Hot to do them later, with equal or better quality. I'm not looking to change your mind, and I like Matt (heck, he is a customer for parts), and he makes great stuff. Just trying to keep the record straight.
All that may be true and I appreciate your input. I've learned a lot about headers in the last week or so. Probably the defining reason I went with Matt, was something I forgot to mention. His are made for each particular vehicle. In other words, his headers for a T bucket are made for a T Buckets cowl. Model A's are made for a Model A's cowl dimensions, etc. Everyone elses were generic. If they aren't, it's not mentioned in their ads. THAT was a very good reason for choosing his. I liked my Petronix and if I was to go back to chrome, I'd get another set. I'm just tired of dealing with the extra care and frustration of chrome headers. If I had a show car or only drove on weekends, I'd go back to them, but I drive EVERYDAY. I need something that will look good AND last. 6 months is not worth the $750 I had invested in my last set.
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