Looking to change out my old rusted headers. I have a 1969 SBC Camaro with stock steering box. Looking for a pair of 1 5/8 stainless steel long tube headers that will fit my camaro, with out beating the tubes to fit. Is this even possible with out breaking the bank ?

 

Good headers aren't cheap.
American Made Performance Headers & Exhaust Systems | American Racing Headers

 

Dougs D308 have fit on some 1st gens without denting to clear starter. But if car is lowered, long tubes are a PIA for speed bumps in/out of driveways.

I went with Mids and they clear everything. This won;t work with Z bar if you have that

1967 CHEVROLET CAMARO Patriot Exhaust H8021-1 Patriot Clippster Headers | Summit Racing

 

I know painting never works but I have been thinking about ceramic coating. Eastwood even has one that will work on the inside. You can tell by the change in header temp. Stainless look great before you run the car hard.

If you have a large enough oven to bake the finish on you are golden. They do make air dry versions also. Prep is key. Check out youtube for how-to videos. My headers are the old aluminum coated headers that sold back in the 80's. They said they would never rust. They lied. I do like the vintage feel of the white headers. Cerakote has a lot of colors. I thought I wanted white but the bronze sure looks nice. The other nice part is you can match your exhaust. For me, I have a rag top with the Z-bar and I know my current exhausts fits.

https://www.cerakote.com/shop?msclki...emp%20Coatings

https://www.jegs.com/i/Eastwood/334/...kaAkogEALw_wcB

 

Well, in the world of “works fine, lasts a long time", we encountered this issue with my ’68 396 and solved it by buying Hooker Headers ‘Super Competition’ headers which, while mild steel, are ceramic-coated. Hooker solves this problem elegantly, by sweeping the #5 tube horizontally OVER the #7, then diving steeply down to make it under the z-bar. Here’s how that looks:


While this is a big-block and power steering box Camaro, Hooker makes a small-block equivalent. I think the number is 2207HKR but there might be a suffix to specify ceramic coatig. Not cheap but it REALLY solves the problem. Plus, by re-routing #5, the steering box gains no header-emitted heat. One possible solution...