Well what's to tell, just look at it, you know it was abused... its painted chevy orange!

This manifold was on my own daily driver I used to and from work and car shows on the weekend. Over a period of 10 years of my performance addiction, this manifold would see 5 different engine combinations, and never once needed anything more than soap and water to clean up and bolt it back on.

Factory 1969 Cross Ram, last used in 1970 on an original SS AMX Factory race car, then put away and never used again. The carbs were original and very rare to find especially in the incredible condition they were. These carbs were the best cores for Holly I had ever seen so I knew this would be a perfect Group 19 show piece! The valve covers were too far gone to be re polished so a satin finish to match the set was going to have to do.

Finished satin profile turned out so smooth that even in the picture, you can actually see the reflection of the carbs on the surface. Although the valve covers were originally polished, they did not turn out as smooth as the manifold due to the quality of the casting. The carburetors I had remanufactured and rediechromated by HARD CORE HOLLEY know to be one of the best and as you can see of course they did turn out even nicer than they would have looked when new in 1969.

Some where I have close up photos of this manifold...but for now, you will just have to believe me when I tell you that this was the worst casting I had ever seen for a racing application. It had been a nightmare to try and keep clean and was ugly to look at. The owner came to me and I turned it into a show piece worthy of the car!.

This is a typical example of how clean a factory casting will look after many years of street us on a performance street car. The concern for this piece, was that the original casting numbers were hardly showing above the base casting. They were flawed with casting slag and were not clear around the edges and at risk of being warn down by any cleaning method. To further complicate matters, the customer insisted on not removing any fittings and keeping the original gasket surfaces and the inside of the manifold untouched so there was no risk of glass bead entering the engine through the plenum.

This job took 15 stages to remove all the flaws, and an extreme amount of hand detailing to repair the casting numbers. One of the best things about this finish, is its ability to give the look of an original finish even though it is sooooo not! This manifold was shotpeened and the surface will actually bead water and fuel will form a pool and evaporate eventually, but does not soak into the casting! This manifold will clean up any spill or non corrosive contamination with a simple baby wipe.

Custom roses stenciling on this PT Cruiser matched a rose theme throughout the inside of the car.