[TR] surface TR3 exhaust manifold?

[terryrs at comcast.net]

A friend of mine told me I should have the exhaust manifold surfaced before re-assembling. It is not rusted, but not perfectly clean either. What are your thoughts? how much can the gasket cover up? 

Actually, the gasket can cover quite a bit up. While I am not arguing that you should or should not resurface your manifold, there is a thick spongy graphite manifold gasket made by Remflext that come in standard 1/8 inch thickness and are designed to crush 50%, which allows it to fillgaps in teh flange surface of up to 1/16 of an inch.
I developed exhaust leaks twice after my rebuild, installed one of these, and am delighted that I can now cruise at 80 mph without having to worry about blowing it again.  
Uhm...I just can't find my receipt to tell you who I bought it from.  (...Guess that means NFI, huh?)  Joe Alexander, was it you????
Terry Smith, '59 TR3A (still blocked by two feet of snow)
New Hampshire