I need help making a set of tube headers

this is what was suggested by my header and exhaust professional..im probably going to go this route to do it his way so it will make life easy for him

 

Good to hear that you are aware. I posted that for the young teenage hot rodder out there who is going to read this thread and give it a try in his parents ba*****t, or small garage.

 

electrical conduit works real well for patterns for a tube bender.

You can rent a conduit bender and conduit is pretty cheap.

 

ooo..yeah that would not be a good idea..not to mention if you get that **** burning it takes off very easy..and before you know it you got dripping flames of goo..add gasoline and you have napalm..its nasy ****.

you definetly want to do it in a very well ventilated area, and with a proper resperator..and you dont want the flame near the pvc..just the heat..its not a quick process so it requires patience...it takes a little while to make the area you want to bend soft enough to do so..most would get in a hurry and start to move the flame too close and bam..Fire!

Kids dont try this at home in moms ba*****t..I wont be going this route to make my patterns..i will be using the steel fuel line as mentioned before to make my patterns..its what tube bender guys like

 

this is true..some slight bends can even be done off you knee..or a table

 

one bit more info i was told..there are limitations to the bends..i guess limits to what the equipment can do..how far they can bend and what radius and such..and possible limitations coming from one bend to another..so its good to consult them once the patterns are made if they cant quite do it the way you have your patterns made..maybe there is a way you can comprimise on some of the bends

I just hope i didnt dip my toe in the huge dollar pond..because if thats the case, im screwed, and will have to investigate another way to make what i want or the dreaded comprimise will be looming over my head

 

tube benders have exact radius of bends, no french curves, heating and bending
plastic tubing around a common radius and and then cutting the tube apart and
gluing it all together could work, but that would be more work then building
the headers in the first place, buy mandrel bends and build your headers, you
would be 1/2 done by now.

 

Something else to consider. Instead of buying kist of bends and cutting them and getting what you want patternwise that way, you could always go to the local swapmeet, buy a couple pairs of **** headers that have the bends you want, cut them apart, and make your pattern that way. It works great, with a little less work, takes more time (to find the parts you want) and is VERY cheap. I did it on my 59, worked fantastic, and I was so happy with the prototype that Im actually running the prototype. Turns out, Im finding other (heat related) complications with my design, so Im gonna remake them a little differently. Thats another thing to consider is the "functionality" of your design... Mine had the unfortunate side-effect of causing too much heat in the engine compartment, so a re-design is in order. Im only into my prototype (version 2 = a few cuts and some of the unholy header tape for heat trials) for right around 40$. Version 3 should run me around another $45 to redesign the entire setup from scratch. Just my .02. Good luck! -Gothy-

 

I work for a header manufacturer doing prototypes. I can tell you that you need to talk to whoever is going to bend these up for you and find out two things - What their bend radius is and what their minimum distance between bends is.
If you don't mock up in the same radius your stuff will come out different - guaranteed. If you don't adhere to the minimum distance between bends then you will have to cut and weld at those joints.
just bending up PVC, Wire, Brake line or anything else without following these rules will result in a disaster, especially since it sounds like you are talking some intricate.

 

Damn you beat me to it! these things seem like the cats ***. and they know it, thats why they are no damned expensive!! who wants to chip in and buy these things?

 

Along with that you can probably scrounge a batch of mistakes (new pipe) from one or more of the local muffler shops and cut and fit your pattern hedders. Cut, fit, tack and then take them to your bud to have him design the real ones.

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