Anyone else here have a HS header that the ceramic coating is wearing off of in certain spots? I've only had mine since August and the bottom of the down-pipe (near the flex-pipe) is showing rust already, along with spots on the manifold pipes themselves. We've had very little rain and pretty much NO snow since I got the header; NJ is under a drought emergency. It's obviously the heat causing the coating to come off. Is this normal?

Are you sure that the coating is coming off? Very light rust can form on the surface of the ceramic coating(I'm not sure what causes this). Usually it forms in joints and around flanges, but easily comes off with some polish.

I suppose another possibility is that the header was not coated well to begin with. I use HPC coating Polish to remove small rust spots.

Yes it does happen, unfortuantely. I've had two Hotshot G3 headers and both of them had severe flaking of the ceramic coating around the flex pipe after a year or so of use. Pretty common in Northern Areas of the country.