Schumacher header exhaust coating

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Use someone who's been in the business for decades, and stands behind the quality of their work.
 
If it's in the budget, then buy of have coated. If you have more time than money you could also try a DIY coating like Chromex. Has to be baked and polished.

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Polished ceramic coatings are NOT a DIY process if you don't have access to a vibratory polisher to finish them properly. Even if you have the ability to thermally clean the headers, blast them with the appropriate media and bake them at 500F 700F for a couple hours. If this material is not burnished / polished properly it WILL rust fairly quickly in addition to looking fairly dull in comparison.

The reason for this is that the dull outer skin is still very porous as it comes out of the curing stage. The primary function of the polishing stage in reality is to beat the surface down and close all the pores as well as providing a polish. So merely polishing the skin off this material with steel wool and or aluminum polish doesn’t address the primary polishing function. You end up with a header that is the equivalent to one that has been overheated and starts to pin-hole with rust blisters. Further, using steel wool to polish ceramic coating SCRATCHES the hell out of the most vulnerably part of the header, the aluminum skin. The "polished" skin on these headers that give you the chrome appearance is only about 1.5 - 2.0 mils thick so its very easy to scratch or polish through.
 
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Polished ceramic coatings are NOT a DIY process if you don't have access to a vibratory polisher to finish them properly. Even if you have the ability to thermally clean the headers, blast them with the appropriate media and bake them at 500F 700F for a couple hours. If this material is not burnished / polished properly it WILL rust fairly quickly in addition to looking fairly dull in comparison.

The reason for this is that the dull outer skin is still very porous as it comes out of the curing stage. The primary function of the polishing stage in reality is to beat the surface down and close all the pores as well as providing a polish. So merely polishing the skin off this material with steel wool and or aluminum polish doesn’t address the primary polishing function. You end up with a header that is the equivalent to one that has been overheated and starts to pin-hole with rust blisters. Further, using steel wool to polish ceramic coating SCRATCHES the hell out of the most vulnerably part of the header, the aluminum skin. The "polished" skin on these headers that give you the chrome appearance is only about 1.5 - 2.0 mils thick so its very easy to scratch or polish through.

Yeah, I get what you're saying and won't dispute it. I didn't say it was ideal, or easy, or that the results would be perfect, or be at the level of a 'professional' - only that headers could be coated with a product such as the one I named. My bad. I had access to the right prep tools, a large PC oven, (no vibratory tumbler but paper, buff wheels and compounds) and, under the circumstances, got the results I expected. Although they have dulled some with heat, there's been no pits, peeling, or rust since 2012 - and that was after removing an old coating. They still look good/decent - better than paint.

I was under the impression the OP was interested in options. I presented one - without any warranty.
 
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Yeah, I get what you're saying and won't dispute it. I didn't say it was ideal, or easy, or that the results would be perfect, or be at the level of a 'professional' - only that headers could be coated with a product such as the one I named. My bad. I had access to the right prep tools, a large PC oven, (no vibratory tumbler but paper, buff wheels and compounds) and, under the circumstances, got the results I expected. Although they have dulled some with heat, there's been no pits, peeling, or rust since 2012 - and that was after removing an old coating. They still look good/decent - better than paint.

I was under the impression the OP was interested in options. I presented one - without any warranty.

Certainly, I was just warning others of the inherent issues with that particular option. Yours apparently worked fairly well, but I've seen others that were a complete disaster. Once that coating has been cured and you have an issues, they need to be completely stripped down to bare metal again and that is a HUGE PITA to strip. If someone wanted to try a professions ceramic as a DIY, they'd be better served to attempt it with one that doesn't require any polish.
 
My car is not a show car, but I do enjoy small town car shows..That said, I sand blasted my new Hooker supper comp fender well headers with fine media.
then spent two days coating with High heat Por 20 , I hope my time was not wasted
I will say this, I have seen a members car here with the same headers and they look good after 9 years of running and driving around town and many burn outs and racing and keeps them touched up with BBQ grill paint

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what is the price for ceramic coating,polished and a thermal inside barrier???
 
I've ran wrap on headers for years with zero problems. Current set on my beaten to death 5.0 mustang have been wrapped and driven rain or shine for about 12 years. And I flat out abused that car. No leaks or rust holes, although if I unwrapped them I'm sure they're ugly as hell underneath. Wrap gets a way overblown bad rep in my opinion. I love the stuff and what it does. Underhood stays cool, if I brush the pipe working on a hot motor it doesn't burn me, no burnt plug or starter wires, and trans cables stay happy. I run it on my street and dirt bikes as well with zero problems. My 2005 R6 got wrap the second day after riding it home from the showroom floor, and its still on with zero problems.
Now having said all that-I live in Northern California-not a lot of humidity or salted roads here haha. I'm sure a rust belt car would probably be much more prone to problems. The mustang did see 5 years of (rain snow or shine) daily driver duty in Brownsburg Indiana, so it did see some road salt and snow. FYI fox body mustangs aren't much fun in the snow on drag radials! Don't ask.
Just my experiences and as usual, YMMV but it's not always a bad idea.
 
Use someone who's been in the business for decades, and stands behind the quality of their work.

Jet Hot was in business for 30+ years. They've been bought and sold about
5 times in that time and most recently were bought out by a holding company for pennies on the dollar after boning creditors with a 950 MILLION dollar bankruptcy........ They stand behind there work, sometimes, lol..... Depends who or what facility is interpreting the warranty.
 
Just a couple of thoughts, yes I would have mine coated by a professional. With that said, Schumackers headers have a high amount of weld beads around the exhaust flanges which block flow. If I was to do Schumackers again (which I would, they are great headers IMO), I would buy them bare, spend some time porting them (they are thick) and then send them to a coater (both inside and out). BB A bodys (RB's specifically) are notorious for fighting heat issue's, this will help and provide power, look cool and have ease of use for servicing.

My 2 cents
 
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