Just purchased a beautiful 69 for my wife, she is 48 and wanted one her entire life.
Going through it now and fixing small issues.
They stuffed a 454 in it and the unusually large Headers hinder the turning radius to one side. Mechanic suggested deforming the Header Tube slightly which sounds unappealing to me, but what are my alternative choices please?
Thanks in Advance for any suggestions.

 

Welcome to the club.
First, ensure the correct BBC frame mounts are installed on the subframe as they set the engine towards pass side about 3/4 inch.
View this centering by comparing the air cleaner stud with an imaginary line from header panel to cowl panel, follow the body line.
Most manf's of header's" have redesigned the shape avoiding massage to fit method,

 

They did install the motor as you have stated above, it is off center to the passenger side. That was the first thing the mechanic checked. The Headers they used seem to be really large my last was a 427 in a corvette and the headers seemed substantially smaller in diameter than these on the 454. So not sure how to proceed?

 

Some brands of headers need some "tweeking" sometimes to fit a variety of applications .Some are better than others Good luck to you.

 

I had to ding one tube a bit on my old 69 to clear the steering box but never had turning issues,it was a 427 and the car had big tube headers,manual steering box.

 

Thank you

 

Not sure why the issue but it hits big time. Thank you

 

Ironic that just about a week ago I was watching "Engine Masters" where the crew would take a particular motor and do things to it to see how it affected the HP/Torque curves. One particular
episode had them use a wedged shape hammer to make huge dents to headers. No matter how they much they pounded the tubes , and not just one but several, the dyno curves barely budged, lol.
Of course, there is a point where you can pretty much kill it to submission but the headers did take quite a beating before that was noticed.

 

It depends on the applications and the style of headers you use .Shorty medium and long tube headers

 

Where is it hitting?