Over 40 step on in...

[Sarge]

Old school baby...when was the last time you sat down and wrapped headers? Been awhile for me!

[BIG D's SS]

Nice. That is old school as hell. Will help with the heatr on the A/c box.

[Motrv8d Steve]

sarge, you've been listening too much to that "wrap" music haven't ya?

talk about "old" school...

[Zboner]

looking good sarge!

[Sarge]

sarge, you've been listening too much to that "wrap" music haven't ya?

talk about "old" school...

Hey man...dayum right...us old school shits are going hunting for some of these "kids" in these blown/sprayed F-Bodies

[Sarge]

looking good sarge!

Thanks Boner....hey wait a minute...I said over 40....that doesnt mean inches you lil shit...Oh OK...this once....

[RainMan]

From one Sarge to another, Crusty semi-old fart reporting for duty!

Word of warning on Header Wrap! Had two cars with header wrap - killed both sets of headers.

I ran Header Wrap on a set of Edelbrock headers about 10 years ago on my IROC-Z. They work great keeping under hood temps down but there is a drawback. Normally headers will last me about 5 + years or so depending on use and environment. The header wrap ate my headers in less than 2 years. They caused the metal to decompose and break down. Was able to crush the header tubes in my hands like brittle plastic. Noticed this one day as I was changing plugs and my ratchet hand slipped and crushed one of the tubes (cylinder #4).

Replaced them in 1998 with a set of SLP S/T S/S headers & Y pipe and have been on ever since. The other car was a modded 1983 Mustang GT 5.0 w/T-5. Header Wrap killed a set of Pacersetter S/S shorties in about 3 years. (Got rid of Car, grenaded the rear end).

Anyhow, be careful, I have had bad luck with header wrap and I don't trust the stuff. Hope you fair better. From your post it sounds like you've used wrap before. Hopefully the quality of S/S Headers has improved enough where this is not an issue anymore.

Good wrap job though!

[Sarge]

Yeah I hear ya...been there myself and learned...two things cause that....
1. Driving in the rain or splashing through puddles ( getting the wrap wet) causes a "cooking/steaming" that makes the metal brittle.
2. A improper wrap that leaves hot and cold spots causes the above also.

I never drive the GTO in the rain and learned how to wrap a long time ago as to even out the heat all across the headers....
Will header wrap still cause premature death to headers....yup.....but not by much and the advantage of not only the underhood heat being significantly reduced but the gains associated with super heating the exhaust flow outweighs the disadvantages...
and you get Kevlar all over you and up your nose....cant be beat
Side note...the older headers werent stainless steel and what you described was more prevalent....the stainless steel headers I have yet to see "cook" under header wrap...so I dunno....the stainless seem to not care being wrapped from what I see...the dirt track guys all wrap the stainless and what used to take 1 season to finish off a set of headers now takes 3-4.....

[RainMan]

The wraps on both cars were nice and tight so that wasn't the issue, but yes, I did get them wet and I know I shouldn't have. Driving in Southern Arizona will get your engine nasty in a hurry. Red Dust everywhere! So I regularly cleaned the engine compartment in a futile attempt to keep it looking decent. Probably the straw that broke the Camels back was PCS move to Patrick AFB, FL . . . .right on the coast. I mean the beach was like 500 yards from the housing area. Death by salt poisoning! Also ate the hood and roof of the IROC! Hello, salvage yard parts!

Looky Before & After! Unfortunately the rear roof A pillars are starting to rust again. Was a rush job as I was getting close to the big Retirement date and had to vacate Base Housing. So, had to throw the car back together!

Oh well, here we go again!



Body work not my greatest effort . . . Oh well! At least I saved it from the crusher!

[RainMan]

Here's one for ya!

Painting the car in Base Housing! Screw-em I was retiring anyway!

[Shorty]

I remember having to set the gap and timing on my 71 Firebird.

[Sarge]

Dayum...that was some major rust work...holy shit......
Oh well...the shit we do for our cars

[RainMan]

Here is another in-work pic. Car Damn near gutted except for engine compartment. Everything out except for suspension, dash, & engine.
At this stage, the new (junkyard) roof skin is on, & started some of the primer work. Later, painted all under lying framework, then put on new fenders, hood, refabbed the doors, etc. . .



You can see the new hood still in the box in this pic below. New fenders are on here too.





This is the old roof skin that I had to cut off & replace!



The real bitch of it all is doing this in a one car garage! Well at least I had a garage!

[badass67]

The bitch of it is, that on a base, you are not supposed to paint your car becasue of the Chemical issue. Same reasons there are not car washes on base.

Bunch of crap if you ask me.
Car is looking nice

[RainMan]

Actually the "Real Bitch" was the fact that the Base Auto Hobby Shop doesn't allow you to shoot your own car anymore!

You do all the body work, all the prep-work, buy all the materials, pay the paint booth fee, then let one of their minimum wage flunkies shoot the car!

NOT!

That's the real reason I did it in the garage. Pulled everything out, used several rolls of plastic and turned the garage into a giant condom.

Bad thing was that my buddy and I shot it in August (in Florida), we both lost like 10 Lbs each sweating our asses off while priming, shooting, wet sanding, etc. Went through like 6 sets of respirator cartridges each!

[Motrv8d Steve]

You are to be commended for restoring this beautiful little bit of automotive history.
dont' they say something like "don't crush em, restore 'em." on American Muscle Car?
yeah and the Rusoleum can says, "Rust Never Sleeps"