Header Paint

I first sand blasted my new Hookers and made sure and didn't touch them and sprayed them with POR-15.

I feel your pain fishy, but I just checked the POR-15 website and I don't believe that POR-15 is recommended for high-temp use. Did you actually use POR-20? POR-20 and Black Velvet (black POR-20) are high temp paints.

Previously I took a rusty set of headers and cleaned the rust off with muriatic acid from the hardware store and painted with POR-20 silver header paint.

I remember using muratic acid back in the day to remove rust from motorcycle gas tanks, and it worked great. Has anyone used phosphoric acid to remove rust? I stopped by the local home supply store and asked about rust removal solutions and a apparently knowledgeable clerk (the only one over 20) in the paint dept. said that phoshoric acid leaves a "phosphorized" finish that paint will readily adhere to and is a better solution for frames, headers, suspension parts, etc. Either acid is about the same price. Beats the heck out of running the air compressor for an hour if the stuff works.