Headers aren't so bad.
A touch labor intensive from scratch and the hardest part is making the flanges.
There's some easy ways to do that as well and all you need is a drill press & file.
Fancier tools are nice, but not always needed.

Perseverance is key as it is with any hot rod project.

As you know, a lot depends on the type car.

Here's one way.


Pretty much most of the hard work is done.

Schoenfeld Sprint Car header for SBC.
Came with flanges, weren't used.
A set of home-made flanges, some short 45* U-bend pieces to fit the Buicks
is all it took.
A mockup as you see, but makes for a nice, professional looking set of headers.

A real easy way to do it is to find out what was the smallest car your engine came with.
In my case from a few years back I dropped an FE 390 into a 59 Ranchero.
Th headers were for the 390 into a Mustang.
One primary on the left side was altered slightly.
The right side - almost always - was a bolt-on.

Same deal a few years later, same engine, 62 Ford Station Wagon, different header for 390 into Mustang, two left side pipes were altered and the right side bolted on with no probs.


Some may think that a sprint car header may be too light for the street, but it's the same gage tubing that I used to hand-build a set of headers for the 32.
47,000 miles and 14 years, they're still doing the job.

If you want heavy, I have pics of a set of beautiful headers on a 53 Ford pickup with flatmotor running a set of headers made with Schedule 40 pipe, a stick welder and a body grinder.
50 years later and they're still going strong....