Marco (my builder) convinced me to stick with the stock RB25det exhaust manifold because it is cast iron. This is what they originally went with during the Project Car Magazine build up. They were also going for the factory look, so the heat shields were used.
I thought about upgrading to a newer exhaust manifold and if I did, there was only one I would use… Future Fab. Unfortunately, I don’t have the budget for it because I’m building the whole car and not jus the motor. Another unfortunate thing was when I received the Project Leopard, all the exhaust manifold components were missing. I was able to pick up an exhaust manifold with heat shield off Ebay for a good price. Marco looked it over and found the heat shield was cracked. I had it welded up for $20. Then I saw a guy selling the heat AND turbo shield. So I bought it from him.
I asked my buddy Hung if he knew a place. He found and contacted Specialized Coatings in Huntington Beach. They said can heat ceramic coat, but they also have the ChromexX option.. which is what I decided to go with. I honestly don’t know if I want to have the turbo heat shield on.. but just incase, I wanted to have it match.
Hung pre-cleaned up my parts prior to dropping it off at a friend’s place and this is what was left after (it was quite a bit more rust prior).
Honestly pretty cool to see how well it came out just through the pictures!!!
So you know where I’m going to get stuff done from now on!!
Thanks to my bro Hung P.
Thanks to Specialized Coating in Huntington Beach for a great job.
