I know that no one is making them *exactly* the way they did...hell, who has that much access to old torque tubes?!? I'm just curious if anyone makes any that are SIMILAR in look to them, specifically for an SBC? I see that Speedway has some for a T roadster that have a little bit of the feel, but don't know if they'd work on an SBC in an A on an A frame. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Small-Block-Chevy-Cl***ic-T-Bucket-Headers,3837.html
You mean these? This is one of those close, but no cigar deals... You might find some weird stuff that follows the same lines, but to get this look you gotta make them. The glory here is that the pipes cover the gap on highboys model-as with stock rails.
Yeah, you're going to have to make them. But then if you're pointing to those Speedway parts as something that has a similar feel, maybe I don't understand what you're looking for exactly.
HA...thanks for the reply, Ryan! I saw one HAMB'er who had some place in Colorado, I think, who fabbed up something similar, but like you said...no banana. I agree 100% on your ***essment about their "glory". I'm doing a coupester, and taking a lot of cues from this car. Also planning on shortening the cab area a la another HAMBer who's in the middle of the conversion.
I got a '38 Torque tube, it is still attached to the banjo and would probably be best sold as a unit, but I guess I could convert the '38 rear to open before I peddle it if I absolutely had to.
I and a whole lot of other guys talked to this guy at Billetproof last weeked. http://hellsgatehotrods.com/ Check him out as his flanges are 45.00 for most any and he has the tapered tubes and the bends. As the others said most of this style header setups are one off units for the car that they are installed on as every setup is just a bit different unless they came out of the same cookie cutter.
I guess what I was asking if there were any kits out there that had parts to kitbash...most notably the pipes as they come off the heads. I remember reading in the book about how it wasn't exactly easy to get those curves dead nuts. Once they get off the heads, the rest would be much easier, no? Well....if you can find some similar torque tubes and not have to pay out the nose for someone to roll some steel the way they did on that roadster!
I took a different approach when I did a set, I used 3" tubing and then figured out what diameter I wanted my inlet to be, used that to figure out that cir***ferance, then marked out that measurement onto one end of the three inch pipe, then removed the extra material (a pie shaped peice) from the end to be shrunk that tapered down to nothing ant the end that wasn't to be shrunk. I then took a ton of hose clamps and started pulling the gap together untill it was ready for the seam to be s***ched up.It was a lot of work, but you could make whatever taper you wanted.
I still think that was the best car at the 50'th roadster show and they stuck it in a dark hallway near the bathrooms!
When it would lay that much shame on everyone else, they probably HAD to do that in order to preserve their gold-chainer pride and egos!!
I sort of followed Tardell's advice for the front header part but only used short tapered tubes. here is a build photo I cant seem to find any good photos showing the pipes I don't think that torque tubes were used back in the day they are way to heavy i think they used tapered drive shafts cut in half giving a shorty look. Oh and here is a neat old timer trick, my headers are just raw steel to get that protective brown patina paint them with ATF and then fire up the motor. (it gets real smoky ) That being said the Tardell's pipes look great but need to be rolled just like he did.
I did a set for Bull's roaster last fall and that got a sb in it. They turned out really nice, took me forever to build them... I'm use to working off fixtures not real cars!
Bluey doesn't use torque tubes, they fabbed those pipes up, they actually describe the process and provide patterns to make them in the book. BTW, I'd venture to guess that very few hot rodders used actual torque tubes to build exhaust with. They are HEAVY as hell, might as well use black iron pipe. Most guys, myself included use 35-36 Ford tapered driveshafts. Sorry for the commentary, just a pet peeve of mine I guess...
Are you sure you don't mean 35-38 Ford Hollow, Ford part number 48-4604-A use with axle having 10-spline pinion, DRIVESHAFT?
You are correct. Mine uses half of a 35-36 driveshaft for the front tapered section with 2.5" tubing for the rest of the length. Haven't burnt myself once. They're really tucked under the body against the frame rail pretty well.
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