PROPER CARE & HANDLING OF FRESH METAL HEADERS Pt.2

Phix Corrosion Treatment

www.ppcbest.com

PPC manufactures a complete line of unique surface care products that consistently produce the professional results you are seeking. Our products are developed using the latest, most innovative chemistry available today.

After looking all over Denver for the product Matt @ Lake Pipes so highly recommended I picked up the phone to bug him about where I might find this stuff. He referred me to the company's URL and I ordered a gallon of Phix Corrosion Treatment which while being formulated for removing corrosion, is equally effective at preventing surface. 

Thanks, Matt. 

PROPER CARE AND HANDLING OF FRESH METAL HEADERS

This is one of those note to self entries. Matt and I had a follow-up chat after I received my handmade pipes in the mail. The subject? The proper prep and storage of fresh metal pipes, prior to installation. Matt advised that since I would neither be installing the pipes right away, nor ceramic coating them anytime soon, avoiding flashing was something I'd want to be mindful of. I told him I'd be storing them indoors (which he was glad to hear) and here's what he advised. Coat the headers in a metal prep product that contain no silicone base (which can make coating them problematic) and load 'em into large trash bags. Seal the bags and keep it as warm and dry as possible. Thanks, Matt. Off to the hardware store I go.

A CLUSTER OF FUN-- 1959 PONCHO

We had a good walk around the Bandimere Drag Strip's swap meet yesterday, just a couple miles from our current digs. I came across a really cool instrument cluster out of a 59 Pontiac. I'm interested in putting this cluster in the '29, or perhaps the 26 tall T. The '29 will get first crack at it, since the Tall T isn't slotted to be built right away. Of course, that's another blog altogether. 

I bought it because I really like the three piece bezel and think it would look great centered or free floating in my model A or model T's dash. As I was googling to confirm its lineage, I came across a company that is making some beautiful instrument bezels themselves and while they may not appeal to the hardcore traditional rodder, I certainly do like what they're doing. I'll let you judge for yourself: CCM Rod Shop Check 'em out.

VALUABLE HEADER ADVICE

Spoke to Matt at Lakeheaders.com again today. Got a shit-ton of good info from him regarding the lake headers he's making for my 327. I asked his thoughts on ceramic coatings vs. chrome for his headers. Matt prefers ceramic coatings and frankly that's where I was leaning. I mentioned I didn't like the way chrome headers tend to discolor and blue. That's when Matt told me something I was totally unaware of. Ceramic, while able to withstand higher temperatures than chrome will flake off of pipes if they run too hot. Matt stressed how vital it is to tune an engine, jet carbs properly and have everything dialed-in before bolting on his headers, whether they're ceramic-coated or chromed. He explained that a motor running too rich, for example a multi-carbed engine with not enough cam, could run as hot as 2800 degrees at the pipes. The best ceramic coatings on the planet can only withstand about 2200 degrees, tops. His suggestion? Tune and jet your carbs through shitty headers or stock manifolds and make sure its dialed in before you bolt on the "pretty" pipes. With over ten years of experience making headers for people day in and day out, suffice it to say that Matt is a wealth of information to a hobbyist like myself. I haven't even got my pipes from him and he's already saved me the time and money by preventing a potentially costly mistake. Try getting that from a major manufacturer. So if you need pipes and/or some solid exhaust advice, Matt is you man.  Enough about exhaust. Onward.

HEADERS ORDERED

SaltFlatMatt from the HAMB aka Lakeheaders.com and I had one more chat about my headers yesterday. He's a great guy to deal with and really works to make sure you're getting exactly what you want. I knew I wanted lakes with his best baffles. But when I got to his site, I really dug the swept style lakes he's offering. So I upgraded to those. Then Matt and I started talking about the sweep downs that he makes and suggested I hold off, given the added expense. Until I mentioned that I was going to have my pipes coated. At that point, it made more sense to order everything I'd need since it would all have to be coated. So it's all ordered. The sweep style headers (note the curvature of the pipes as they go into the main pipe), the downturns, and the baffles. I'll likely use Matt's supplier on the coatings, too. I'll keep you posted on that. Exhaust? Check!
The parts piles grows. One less thing to buy before the build is back on. Hehehe

STRING WRAPPED WHEEL

Once in a while I come across something so cool that I have to put in on this blog so I'll remember it months later when I'm finally at that point in my own build. I'll want to refer back to this when it comes time to figure out my steering wheel. This is a picture from a thread I just read on the HAMB blog covering an old racer's trick for creating a "grippy" texture for the steering wheel. It involves wrapping string or leather lacing around the wheel's rim and then coating it in a clear hardener. As I followed the thread, I came across an interior shot of one of my favorite RPU's, so I liberated this particular picture from the thread as a great reference shot. It not only shows a bitchen  wrapped steering wheel, but a killer interior as well. Note the super tasty gauge placement, the bolsters on the seats, the matting instead of carpeting, and of course, the finish work overall. Wish I were right-hand driving something this cool.

Thanks for the inspiration yet again, HAMB. 

One more thing: this explanation below was given about how one continues the wrap when arriving at the wheel's spoke. Worth noting as well:

When you are wrapping the twine in the same direction around the circumference of the steering wheel. you get to a spoke, you make a few loose wraps around the spoke, then thread the twine under this loop, around to the back of the steering wheel where you then thread it through the backside of the loop around the spoke, then back to the front, etc. until you get past the spoke, then proceed to once again wrap in the same direction around the wheel. I also made a side view of how I believe the wrap is done through the loop around the spoke. Of course the real deal would look one hell of a lot better.....

GOT PIPES!

As luck would have it, we set-up the Hotrodshiftknob.com booth directly across from Matt, owner of Lakepipes.com at the Lone Star Round Up this past weekend. As those of you who’ve been following this post know, I’ve been contemplating what type of headers to run on the ’29.

Note the graceful taper of the pipes. Still undecided about running Matt's turndowns.

This is the basic premise. Matt's going to set me up with the quietest baffle he offers.

As the show went on, I had ample opportunity to chat with Matt about his product line. The more I watched his lakes-style pipes blowing out of his booth, the more convinced I became that they’d be the perfect setup for my roadster’s 327. I asked Matt a lot of questions about the internal baffles he offered and ultimately decided I was interested in making them as quiet as a pair of his lake headers could be. Matt suggested running the extra baffles and tucking them as far forward in the pipes as possible. Knowing that Matt fully understood what I wanted, I signed up for a fully welded set of his lakes-style headers with his quietest baffling. He quoted me two weeks to a month to have them welded up and ready to ship. So there you have it. The parts pile continues to grow. The next question will be what to coat the headers with. Nickel plating, JetHot coating and ceramic metallic coating are a few options that come to mind. More on this later.