I wanted to build some traditional side pipes similar to what are on the Isky T. This happened about ay year ago but I've been delinquent in posting about it. Figured some of you would enjoy seeing pictures of the process. Bear in mind that I'm just a novice at this stuff so there might be better methods. Guys like Gear Drive Headers do/did a much more professional job and should comment at will to help out anyone who might try doing this. Here's what we are building... First step was cutting out the flanges from 3/8 mild steel. After I drew up the cad files that I cut them out on a wire EDM machine. This is honestly the only part not authentic to the 1950's. LOL After cutting the flanges I needed to make the stub tubes so I did some lathe work and milling to make some dies to form the square/rectanglular-round transitions. These were used on an arbor press and perfected with a dead blow hammer. My whole build is mild steel as I wanted to oxy-acetylene weld them. The frame on my car was all welded that way back in 1953 so it made sense to continue. I'd never gas welded before so I spent a couple evenings playing around with scrap tubing. Don't judge me too bad on my welding... I cut quite a few welds apart on the test pieces to make sure the penetration was good. The stubs were mig welded to the flanges on the engine side but from there out it was all torch work. Then the individual parts were set up in my 1942 Brown and Sharpe vertical mill and faced flat. I've seen older headers that were brazed on the outside with brass to help them not crack at the stubs. Whether this really makes a difference or not, who knows. And they were welded onto the first bend. This one made up for the Olds Rocket cylinder bank angle so that all the pipes pointed straight out like zoomies. The next step was splitting my old 36 driveshaft tube in half and welding it on. This set the stage for all subsequent fitting and tacking. Next installment will be fitting the second two primary tubes into the driveshaft. Some of the junk strapped on like the piece of conduit were just so I could get a visual of what I was trying to do. Obviously I was using mandrel bends and cutting them into the angles desired. I want to upload these pictures before something happens. Stay tuned.
I'll see what else I can get posted here while I'm eating my ravioli... The main tube were reasonably easy. They set the tone for everything else though so you have to look at them from all angles. One of the differences with my car is how wide the frame is at the bellhousing. Most early frames are much narrower and allow a more shallow angle both angling down slower and angling out more gradually. Mine had to do both quickly. I tried to make sure that I liked the angle both looking down from overhead and looking from the side. I used various conduit bends and hoses to simulate the other primary tubes. This is when having random junk laying around comes in handy! The siamesed center primary took a TON of careful grinding and fitting because it was such a large gradual cope. I did all the fitup on the car before tacking and removing for final welding. My gas welding skills were improving but I still tried to do as little out of position welding as possible. I have an early 324 engine that sat out in the woods. The engine was a total loss so I decided to remove one of the heads to use as a welding fixture. This worked great because it gave a very rigid but still portable fixture. On the first side I had a bit off trouble welding down in the root of the primary/collector joint. The Ford driveshafts are interesting to weld or cut anyway as they act considerably different than the mild steel. Don't worry, I cut holes under the primay tubes but forgot to take pictures on this side. The second side will show that. Here is the first side welded stress relieved (I'll show that on the second side as well) and back on the car. I chose to install studs in the heads as some of them see water in these engines. I'd like to be able to pull my headers without draining the coolant. They are long at this point because I hadn't figured out my side pipes yet. Second side started. Same process again, but trickier because I wanted them symmetrical. Here is torching the holes to my scratch lines. Torching that driveshaft material is tricky too. It acts a little like stainless. There must have been a lot of chrome in the alloy. View attachment 4117994 I like this last shot! Remember I talked about stress relieving? Even though gas welding helps with that compared to Mig, there was stil considerable stress in the part when I got done welding. I had left the flange stud holes on size to keep them as straight as possible. I stress relieved the whole header by heating the primary sweeps up red hot and allowing them to cool while still bolted to the head. Afterward, I drilled the stud holes 1/32 oversize and they slide on and off beautifully. Here is a shot of the headers at a dull glow. That's all for now. I'll show the completed header next time.
Yeh, most times people don't take the pains you took to make those flanges and stub tubes, nice work.
Thanks guys. Here's the completed driver's side header. The large junction welds came out quite a bit better on this one. Went to a larger torch tip. They're not like modern tig welds but I feel they fit the car and era I'm finishing the car to. I'm trying to continue the flavor the guys had to it in 1953/54 when this thing was built before it got abandoned. Next session will be sidepipe/mufflers.
Nice job! I too always have trouble welding the inside area where two pipes join at a sharp angle like yours do.
Here're some pictures of the miter'd header and some of the sidepipes. There wasn't a lot of room to fit these in so I was pretty constrained design wise. They had to go outside the frame as the car only has about 6 inch of ground clearance and they had to be low in case I decide to build the body with doors. The pipe I used was some tubing they threw away at work years ago. It had been sitting outside so that is why it's a little patina'd LOL. It measures just over 3" ID and the driveshaft part of the header is 2.75 OD. The way I dealt with this is rather than mitering each tube equally, I angled the header and left the side pipe straight on the end. This made the header have an oval shape opening that approached the diameter of the larger tubing. I then lightly C clamped the side pipes and gradually slid them up to the header, trimming and trying several times. When I had the fit I wanted I welded them on. You can see my new tires have arrived. Don't worry we aren't going with duals! One 21st century concession I made is I welded bungs on the bottom of the side pipes right behind the headers. This facilitates two things. I can take a back pressure reading when my mufflers are built, and I can plug in a wide band oxygen sensor to help me tune my homebuilt tripower. I'm a better mechanic than tuner, won't lie... Here are some pictures of the completed pipes before blasting and painting. For now they are just painted with silver VHT header paint. Later on they may be ceramic coated. I really like when they used to paint headers white but I haven't decided what is right for the era yet.
Blasted. I wore gloves anytime I handled them after they were at the blasters. The place I took them runs pretty coarse sand so they put a good "tooth" on them for paint to stick to. Next session will discuss building the mufflers
Here's some pictures of the muffler baffles I built. They are 2" stainless milk line cut to 4 foot length. Then I turned up stainless rings from sheetmetal that would keep them centered and drilled holes in them. These were then split and spread almost like one auger flight. The tubes were sliced on the chop saw and the rings were tacked on. I wrapped them in some stainless mess I got from a large compressor oil separator. In the tail end I put a bolt thru so I can pull them in and out with a big T handle I made. Tubes Turning the rings Tacked on after slicing and spreading. The spreading allowed me to do one continuous wrap of stainless mesh rather than having to wrap each chamber. The rears were not split but they are positioned in the pipes so that the scallop cut out is down. That way moisture can work its way out of the pipes easily. Wrap can be seen on the ground in the picture above. It was then secured with stainless hose clamps. The side nut allows a bolt to be run in thru the outer pipe to secure the baffle. The pin welded thru so that the baffle can be pulled with the T handle. End view. I left the pipes long right now so they can be cut off whatever length I want them when I figure out a body. The baffles are slid in about a foot and a half from the end. bolt that secures them That's all for now. Winter is here. Maybe in the spring I can get you a sound byte and some more pictures. I really like how they sound. Very low and throaty. Hope you guys enjoy looking thru the process as much as I liked building them.
HaHa, Thanks. I'm a machinist for a living but a novice at welding and most of this hot rod building stuff. The machines I have to work with at home are all pretty much WWII era. Compared to the guys who were machinists/welders back then I don't know squat.
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