Well, finally my Comptech header came. The header was used for couple of months but besides water stains/corrosion and heat blemishes, its mint. I decided I wanted to atleast bling up the runners that would be expose in the engine bay. I remember someone asking how do you clean up your stainless header, so seeing that I was doing this anyway, I figure maybe this write up will help out some of you. The results made me happy. Here is what you'll need:

Scotch Bright (I was lucky enough to have the "very fine" ones from work. it leaves less hairline scratches)
Polishing compound (I used Mother's Aluminum Polish. It worked fine for me)
Buffer (unless you dont mind doing it by hand, it just takes longer)
Applicator pad to apply the compound




When I first got it, it had some water stains,corrosion and heat discolorations on it. Obviously, they will have it again when I start up the car, but atleast they wont have the corrosion on it anymore.



After I scrubbed it down with "Very fine" Scotch bright pad.



After I finished (polished it for about 2 minutes on each runner.)



Overall, for the amount of work involved, which was VERY LITTLE, I'm very pleased at the outcome. I'll take pics of it again when I start her up this weekend and it turns into the pretty gold/blue color. Let me know what you think.

 

looks

 

popping your hood and showing other people your setup is very very bad

anyways, looks good

 

thats a dam good job

 

Thanks guys.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by type B16 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">popping your hood and showing other people your setup is very very bad

anyways, looks good</TD></TR></TABLE>

No different then poping it at a car show or at the track. You just gotta be careful where you leave it. But thanks for the heads up.

 

wow, very nice headers

 

good work. looks decent

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b18a1ef9 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">wow, very nice headers </TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks, Custome Comptech Equal length for b series.

 

wow!

 

Install done.

 

you put a b series header on an F series?

im confused lol

 

LOL. No, the b series post above was a joke... I thought the "smilie" might have given it away, guess not. Sorry.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ^^ALUCARD^^ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">LOL. No, the b series post above was a joke... I thought the "smilie" might have given it away, guess not. Sorry. </TD></TR></TABLE>

lol.

sorry.

its 3AM

 

I couldnt believe it either, I was originaly using my hands on the runners. By the time I was sweating like a dog, I decided to use the buffer. WOW, it really shined it up after that. So I just went with the buffer. In areas thats really tight, I just used my hands, still came out good.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by type B16 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">popping your hood and showing other people your setup is very very bad

anyways, looks good</TD></TR></TABLE>
uh who the expletive says that?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by opiumdaze &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
uh who the expletive says that?</TD></TR></TABLE>

He'll probley say Paul Walker

 

Looks good man, im also doing the same thing to my Comptech header. I got a STEAL on this header, and it looked exactly the same as your 1st pic. I tried by doing ti hand and said expletive it. Busted out my dremel , and 120 grit sanding bit and went to town on the flanges and o2 bung and then used the real fine sand paper to taking everything off and now today im going to polish it up.

 

Nice....got any pictures of the whole header when you were finished.

 

Ill snap some later today when Im done. Only gotta polish it up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FBP_Si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thats a dam good job </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

this thread inspired me to do my Greddy. ive had it for like 2 years so i tackled the project today

and besides, i now know that there is a hot cashier at discount auto parts thanks to you whom i got to see twice b/c i forgot my wallet at home and had to go back lol







dont mind the rest of the bay being dirty... my baby gets parked on a dirt parking lot at work 5 days a week

next week ima try the same procedure on the alternator

 

Looks great man! Show some pics of it after it turns gold. Yours didnt look that corroded therefor I'm not sure as to why you tackled the job....but looking at your radiator and what your gonna do to your alternator, something tells me you actually enjoyed doing it. LOL

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ^^ALUCARD^^ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks great man! Show some pics of it after it turns gold. Yours didnt look that corroded therefor I'm not sure as to why you tackled the job....but looking at your radiator and what your gonna do to your alternator, something tells me you actually enjoyed doing it. LOL </TD></TR></TABLE>

this pic was taken the day after i put the header on for the first time (thankfully the engine bay is no longer cluttered with useless crap as seen in this pic)

i just hope it stays nice and gold like this... i read somewhere that if you clean the header with windex (or something equivalent) before you turn the car on after polishing it it keeps it clean. i used gloves and everything this time to keep my finger prints off it

 

Thats exactly what I did too. I took extra time to reclean it after i tightened everything down. After I took it out for a spin today, runners turned gold. Sooooo nice. Even better, noticed more torque and throttle response made me happy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ^^ALUCARD^^ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Even better, noticed more torque and throttle response made me happy. </TD></TR></TABLE>

lol, well i think reinstalling the header made mine quieter. before today i could always hear a tiny little exhaust leak, now i dont think i hear it