OK, today I decided to give the headers a good rub back with 800grit, as per Erci's post. Cheers for that mate!
Took about 5 mins to pull them off, and easy as, so anyone can do it.
this what they looked like before....
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee155/c-whiz/FZ6/Header001.jpg
After a good scrub.......
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee155/c-whiz/FZ6/Header004.jpg
But then my mechanic decided to try a different tack.....
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee155/c-whiz/FZ6/Header005.jpg
And we went with the matt-black header paint option......
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee155/c-whiz/FZ6/Header007.jpg
To be installed back on the bike tomorrow.......
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee155/c-whiz/FZ6/Header008.jpg
All up, about 3 hours worth of work including a trip to the auto-shop to get paint and removing/installing headers twice. I'll post a couple of pics once installed tomorrow.