Wow that was way harder than I thought. I thought I would get this and brake lines done in a 4 day weekend...boy was I wrong. I made some straight pipe sections for the brockman steel packs in case it's too quiet. Next project brake, gas, and columbia vacuum lines. Then it will be time to take it apart for paint.
I made the brackets with plate steel and a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a cut off wheel. and some hand filing too.
Looks good. Welded & ground U-bends or bender? Just curious if you've done the weld and grind bit on exhaust pipe welds before and how it worked out. Thinking of doing that with an upcoming system, looks like a very workable deal. Nice brackets. The first exhaust setup on my 32 had the pipes up close to the floor like yours. I chose to rebuild it due to the potential heat factor. A couple of things I could have done; a touch more clearance between exhaust pipe and floor and bolt a heat reflector to short bushings under the floor. The heat reflector being nothing more than a piece of sheet metal - aluminum or stainless. Just far enough away to allow some cooling air to flow between exhaust pipe & floor. Doesn't take much distance as long as air can get in there. Even if the air is not moving, it's a pretty good insulator.
Welded and ground u - bends. This is my first car exhaust build, I did do one on my bike and it worked out well. The exhaust is close to the trunk floor, would the heat cause problem there? How about heat wrap in that area? It is about 1 1/2" or more from the rest of the floor.
I ended up using a Rigid pipe cutter (for 1" to 2" pipe) like you would use for cutting copper pipe. Worked perfect, even on the bends, it cut square on the radius so the ends fit together nice. It takes a few tries to figure how to get the cut straight on the bends but then it's easy. You need a good wheel on the cutter and don't cut it too fast so you bend the end of pipe in. If I had a nice band saw I may have used that.
Looks really nice. I am going to be embarking on similar territory soon. Great to see some good pics. Mike
Looks good but the problem I have ran into in the past and you may to is the exhaust being close to the sheet metal and even the frame caused it to rust more rapidly due to the heating and cooling effect.
Thats how I build all of my exhausts Mandrel bends cut and welded. Next time you may want to try stainless so it is a one time deal.
Looks good, and the tips come out exactly where they are "supposed" to on a '32. But, did you put an expanded joint somewhere near the rear crossmember so you can get the pipe out of the hole?
LOOKS GREAT Really going to be a KILLER coupe. As a side note ... the exhaust on my 3W is fairly close also ... SO ... I had the entire system Jet - Hot coated ... I really like the silver shiney look and it holds up good. It reduces the heat transfer a good bit also.
I did put a joint right at the rear crossmember. I am thinking of coating the exhaust black, I didn't know about the heat transfer bit.
NICE work...and very time consuming! Of course nobody will believe you have 4 days into it. Until they TRY to do it so nice themselves...
that looks awesome my exhaust is two thrush gl***packs standing in the corner so far I need to get on that I KNOW
Exhaust looks great!, you can get the same effects as the above silver coating in black also...hell, you could have them do it in blue if you wanted to for whatever reason...hahaha
Thanks for the comments and recognizing how hard a job it is to get it to come out nice and seamless...especially for the first time trying it. I am guessing at least 40 (probaly more) hours cutting, welding, and grinding. Here is a pic during the thick of it and with the straight pipes that I am going to run unless it's too loud.
The Jalopy Journal
