While I like the look of a restored car, we drive ours and I too am a Day 2 guy who likes to have a musclecar that looks the part. As a matter of fact, Dale and I were out for about a 30 mile run in the old 396 car today. The first run since last October. Our 427 car ran Hedman headers from Day 2. We had a '72 with a '68 L78 and headers. Our '69 396 car has the headers that came on it in '97. Our '69 el Camino also got headers when I was freshening it up. The 455 in our '72 Lemans Sport got them too. My only experience with Hooker was that the collectors were way low. The Flow Tech headers started showing rust after one season. If you want to buy a nice fitting header, go with Hedman or others that fit, then take them to a company that does ceramic coating. The results seem to be a lot better. Flushed with money, go with stainless steel headers. They should last a life time, or certainly longer than us old guys are going to be around.
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Chevelleless after 46 years......but we did find a low mileage, six speed, silver 2005 Corvette. It will just have to do for now.