I just picked up a set of Hooker ceramic coated headers for my 72 Duster. They are new, never used but were sitting around a shop for 2 years and got a little scratched up. Looks like some bleading through the ceramic coating(rust maybe)and some scratches. Anyone know a good way to get them looking great again. I was looking and Eastwood has a polishing kit for ceramic headers and they also have a 4 oz container of ceramic coating for use with headers. Do you think I can scuff them up and respray them with Eastwoods coating, or would it peal? If not any sugestions on how to restore them before putting them it. Heres a picture.

Butch

Lets try that pic again...

One more....

real fine steel wool works great for me. however i havent tryed it on a set that hasnt been heat cycled.

after the steel whool mothers billet wheel polish if you want them to be a little better.

I used some #0000 steel wool with blue magic metal polish on mine and they turned out real nice

I would suggest putting them in FIRST, and then worry about appearance. I had a set of headers on my car for years. Took them off and had them ceramic coated for heat, then black on top of that for appearance... Put them back in with all the other new parts and they wouldn't fit. Had to whack them about a hundred times to make them fit.... Appearance standards went way down at that point ha ha.

Sound like steel wool it is, I'll give that a try ans see how they look. Good point about intalling first, last set on headersI put in a different car needed a little massaging.

Still curious about a recoat though with that eastwood ceramic coating, any opinions on if it would stick to the header coating?

Butch

I've touched up my TTI's with high temperature stainless steel paint. It's almost a dead on match on the headers, but visibly different than the aluminized finish on the tailpipes. The water spots you see here wiped off easily after this picture.

Good to know, thanks.

This is the eastwood product I was thinking about, just dont know if it will stick...
http://www.eastwood.com/tlc-colorgard-stainless-kit-w-polish-4oz.html

The directions say to apply to a lightly blasted surface. Might not stick well otherwise.

Just put them in. If they are Hooker's you'll have to beat the crap out of them to get them to fit and the coating will all rust off in a year or so anyway. Hooker won't get anymore of my money.