cleaning up headers

venomous42

venomous42

Contributing Member
Joined
26 December 2012
Messages
127
Location
chetopa, ks
i have a set of ct headers that have a alot of light surface rust on them and stained. i have tried 600 grit, buffing wheel with mothers, naval jelly, and some other stuff i had laying around. nothing works. besides the 600 grit and a ton of sanding. all ive got done after 4-5 hrs of work is half of one pipe on one header. anyone have any tips or tricks or miracle wonder? short of sending them to be ceramic coated and spending 200.00, or spending 20hrs hand sanding and polishing, is there any cheaper alternative under 50.00? here is some pics of what they look like inc. the one im working on now. CAM00094.jpgCAM00093.jpg
 
Yeah. I'd say if there's enough material try a slightly lower grit...

Truthfully though if you have them off just get them ceramic coated. But you'd want to take away the spots as much as possible before anyways. The coating is only as good as the prep work.
 
I am failing to see why all of this is necessary in the first place. :confused: You can't even really see the headers when they're on the car!!
 
Hapa88 said:
I am failing to see why all of this is necessary in the first place. :confused: You can't even really see the headers when they're on the car!!
Click to expand...

the rust will only get worse and spread. if put all new test pipes and a pride v1 on it, i might as well do it right. i would love to put them on w/o do it anything else. but for what i paid for them, i cant see it. the collectors and o2 bungs are in pretty bad shape.
 
sounds strange but try using some crumpled up aluminum foil and rub it on them. Worked great for me on a set of stainless pipes.
 
venomous42 said:
the rust will only get worse and spread. if put all new test pipes and a pride v1 on it, I might as well do it right. I would love to put them on w/o do it anything else. but for what I paid for them, I cant see it. the collectors and o2 bungs are in pretty bad shape.
Click to expand...

I'd think the headers are made of stainless steel so normal rust shouldn't be a problem.
I spent many years polishing steel, chromed steel and stainless steel motorcycle headers in an endless attempt to keep them looking crisp.
Didn't find any substitute for hand labour in cleaning headers up.
I think SDuff is right, ceramic coating would be the best solution once you've finished cleaning them up.
 
The easiest solution would be electropolishing - it is fairly cheap and quick (no, not just because someone else does it..) you can look up and see if anyone local does it, it is a very popular process for industrial parts (many of the parts we buy are done this way).

Second way - which is also very fast, yet has it's caveats - pickling paste.

Pickling paste is a strong acid jelly that will eat only the surface oxidation off almost immediately - It is fairly cheap (you might even be able to get some free if you know a welding shop) but… It is extremely caustic (read "will KILL YOU") and it will leave the headers looking dull - really really clean, but dull.
 
Pickling paste
ive never heard of that. dull is better than rusty. im not looking for showroom or show car clean. i just wanted to get the surface rust off before it did damage to it. i might try the Pickling paste, but other than that, the ceramic coater wants them for 2 weeks to do it. i dont have that long to wait. think ill just clean them up a little, but pay more attention to the collectors and o2 bungs, they are pretty bad, then just run them like that.
thanks for all the ideas.
 
Is there a reason you can't wait? Maybe you can take it to another place since it shouldn't take more then a week if they aren't busy. Problem is most powder coaters or rather the one I go to are booked up pretty badly.

You have them off and took the time to do it and correct the situation. You're basically only a few weeks away and a couple hundred bucks from NEVER having to worry or do it again because even if you sand them down the surface rust will come back without some type of coating.

I hate doing things twice, and sanding just seems like the bandaid fix. If you don't have the time then that's understandable but that's my view.
 
Sduff@Composites said:
Is there a reason you can't wait? Maybe you can take it to another place since it shouldn't take more then a week if they aren't busy. Problem is most powder coaters or rather the one I go to are booked up pretty badly.

You have them off and took the time to do it and correct the situation. You're basically only a few weeks away and a couple hundred bucks from NEVER having to worry or do it again because even if you sand them down the surface rust will come back without some type of coating.

I hate doing things twice, and sanding just seems like the bandaid fix. If you don't have the time then that's understandable but that's my view.
Click to expand...
problem is, there is only 1 place within 60 miles of me that i can find to do it. ive been down now for 2 weeks waiting on parts and fixing the ride height and bad coil over. ill call them monday and see what they say.
 
venomous42 said:
the rust will only get worse and spread. if put all new test pipes and a pride v1 on it, i might as well do it right. i would love to put them on w/o do it anything else. but for what i paid for them, i cant see it. the collectors and o2 bungs are in pretty bad shape.
Click to expand...

Yes, the rust will get worse, but rust isn't a disease, it's OXIDATION. It occurs when iron comes into contact with oxygen and forms iron oxide. The presence of other rust doesn't spread it. To prevent rust you need to prevent iron from coming into contact with oxygen.


JD Cross said:
I'd think the headers are made of stainless steel so normal rust shouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...

Yes, 100% agree. The header is made from a pretty thick metal, so it should go 20+ years under normal use without any issues.

venomous42 said:
i just wanted to get the surface rust off before it did damage to it.
Click to expand...
By removing or polishing the rust off, you're also removing part of the top layer of the metal that also isn't rusted. In essence you're basically shorting the life of the material by removing additional material that could've rusted first.

Anyway, you've already started, so the best thing for you to do is to get a nice clean surface, and get a oxygen barrier in place... powdercoating, or even high temperature paint could be that barrier.
The worst thing you could do, IMO, is polish off the rust and not do any additional steps.

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Last edited:
600 is way too soft for first pass, you should step from 240 - 400 - 600 then finish with mothers and put it on thick to a brilliant shine.

Problem is when you use a paper that's too soft up front is it gums up quickly causing lots of wasted time.

If it were me I'd start with 120, but that's pretty aggressive. You should also be using a DA sander to do this where you can to avoid grain cutting.
 
We had the headers on our LoveFab car ceramic coated inside and out, I think it's well worth the time and money spent.

Before;



After;


Brian
 

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