Asking this here because most of you guys deal with stainless steel every day of your lives lol. I have a header here, wont mention the name as thats not important, thats starting to form big spots of surface rust all over it and making it look like total garbage. Anyway to get this off of it without it leaving a mark on the metal?

 

you can try some scotchbrite and some wd40.

 

eagle 1 chrome polish

 

send it back? if i is advertised as 304 grade or higher stainless, it shouldn't rust.

 

Vibrant?

 

304 can rust.

 

What grade Stainless?
Have you brushed or polished this unit?

 

I don't know about that guy but what's going on with my 1 year old vibrant


New



1 year

 

^ at least the flange looks good.

 

This is true 304 grade stainless steel according to them. This is a 500+ dollar header. And its looking like complete garbage right now lol. Havnt touched it so far, wanted to see what you guys thought. I sent them a email also but that was about 4-5 days ago and i havnt got any reply yet.

 

most of the rust you will experience is just misc stuff that stuck to the header while it was super hot. it usually isnt the metal itself, you should always clean and scotchbrite the header as much as possible to remove this stuff and prevent it from looking like crap over time. like when you wash your car and the header gets wet, then you start it all the water and dirt will stock to the header and begin to rust over time. totally normal.

 

Its hard to say at this point, but it could have very well been that their polishing materials had been previously used on something like mild steel.

I'd bet it was manufactured off shore, using questionable stainless tubing.

Its one of those, you get what you pay for situations.

 

These guys are right.... stainless can and will rust.

It's all in the name stain-less.... it's not called rust-free. lol

 

heat wrap that bich or send it to get heat coated

 

get that **** coated for less than 100$ and your done! you will never have to worry about it rusting or looking bad!

**** it **** happens just deal with it, now if it was cracked thats a whole different story

 

heat wrap will make it worse.

 

But it hides it, so that's what matters, right Jackson?

 

Blast & coat it. You'd have to scotchbrite that rust/scale off the header, and more then likely it will re-crap up. CDM FTW.

 

Its either complete **** stock or their polishing process was used on carbon steel and got contaminated. It happens every once in awhile where I work when someone decides to be a dumbass and mixes up the carbon steel and 302 stainless wire wheels. I would just get it coated.

 

yeah, the only time i've seen 304 rust is from contamination with carbon steel... in that case it is the carbon that is embedded on the 304 surface that is rusting.

and yeah, CDM FTL!

 

That looks like sh*t!
I have bought Megan, JDMSh*t, and many other cheaper brand headers that have never done that in the many years that I have owned them.. No matter what was done to them.. Oil, coolant, water, and other fluids spilled on them and wiped off. Never polished

 

For the record thats not mine that is posted up. I have a bisimoto

 

thats what she said.

 

even the dipstick is rusting in that pic, its just a matter of harsh conditions and the owner not taking care of the product. even the alluminum on the head looks worse in the second pic. all he would have had to do is just wipe it down on the weekend or something

 

That header has never even seen water before that 2nd picture. What are the harsh conditions? The car was parked indoors from sept 08-09. That header maybe was used 10 times...I think 3 times on the track and other times to move it around the garage. To blame it on not taking care of it is not resonable as I can see 15yr old mugen or ractive headers that don't look so bad. I have a stainless Ractive muffler bought in 97 that has been on 5 cars and through a winter every year which includes salt. The tubing still looks great.


If it's going to rot out then build em out of mildsteel.