Just looking at pictures is easy. Exit the mufflers 90 degree bend up and over the axle. slight run over the axle then another 90 degree bend down with a slight 12 degree bend sideways and exit out the back. Yes Sir sitting and looking at it is easy. Doing it is the challenging part. We have faith in you and your patience to make it work and look great.
A friend of mine who has a machine shop taught me that oversize tick. He drills most holes next drill oversize b4 tapping
Gary Stauffer at QEC in Bend OR. He has been very helpful and generous with info on both of my Dodge Hemi builds. www.qualityengineeredcomponents.com
Coupla things since my last post After numerous "tacks" with the header still bolted to the engine, things moved just enough to prevent removal of the header. However, epiphany !!!! pull the starter, easy,...two nuts,,....what was I thinking? Hopefully movement from final welding will not preclude reinstallation. Fingers crossed. The pic below is upside down and bass ackward and looking at the inside, the engine side. Onward to the routing and muffler mounting. Although it looked pretty straight forward in the earlier posted pics, I'm just not comfortable with the clearance at the center crossmember. At best it's 5/16" top and bottom and with flex and rubber isolators I think that's cutting it too close. And, getting the pipes up and over and around the coilovers, and the panhard bar, and exiting where I want is equally difficult which ever way that area is approached. Sooo,.today I'll look at sneaking the headpipe over to the inside of the ladder bars.
Finally after a lotta head scratching and more "little pieces outta big pieces",....I'm feeling some success. Got the final merge figured out and recalling my High School geometry made this fixture to get proper cuts for matching various curves of tubing. The result that you see below took a whole lotta fussin to thread the headpipe thru the maze of crossmember tubes in order to to get the mufflers where they needed to be. Next challenge is exhaust hangers that still allow for pulling the pipes.
Those headers and exhaust...wow...just wow! Where there is a will (and shear determination and dogged stubbornness) there is a way!
Just like I said earlier. Easy Peasy for you. What did that take, all of ten 12 hour days? You have such an imaginative mind and foresight to be able to see then create it is amazing.
Thanks boys,...but I think it's more about getting all the bad shit done before the good stuff shows up. And there's always someone who can top your story! Flashed on the image below, an ARP ad in the Rodding USA mag I was scanning in the "library" this morning
I'll bet that cost Wes Rydel a bundle having it built by Troy. I like watching your project progress.
Ya know,.....ya think yuv got something special and lay awake nights figger'n how to pull it off and then some 20 something "techy" fabricator with the latest tools (and a steady hand I have to admit)... steels your fleeting spot in the lime light. It aint fair!
Bill...you've got something special...f@#%in' cool as a matter of fact. I've come to the realization that there will always be someone that is a better fabricator, has more money, a bigger shop, better tools, is better looking etc...but none of that takes away from your f@#%in' cool stuff!
Meh. The fabrication looks good but it's in a late model something, I'm more interested in what you're doing with an old Hemi in a model eh. Keep at it.
Seems like this is taking forever! Finally got all the weld joints completed and feeling fairly confident I've not missed any chance for leaks in the hard to see and reach sections that are obscured by adjacent tubes. Cleaned up and assembled everything on the bench and couldn't resist taking a few shots to show a lot of the assembly not be visible when the whole package is installed on the car. One issue that has reared it's ugly head is that sections have moved during final welding and some adjustment of the four tubes that traverse beneath the oil pan will be required.
NOOOOOooo! Don't stop him, he's on a roll! Your Hemi is going to sound great with those headers and the blower.
Initially I thunk to attack the passenger side assuming it would be more the more difficult fabrication. However,....now the challenge is to achieve some semblance of symmetry driver to passenger side.
The Jalopy Journal
