Tech Week - Lakes style headers

Well I've been working on my 1929 A-V8 roadster for a while now, and I love the way lakes headers look. I'm far from an expert fabricator, and was intimidated by making the flared portion of the pipe. I found out it is much easier than it looks, and after building my pipes for less than $100 out of stainless steel, I figured it would be worth sharing.

I had several obstacles to overcome that would keep me from purchasing pre-fabbed pipes, such as bracketry for my cowl steering, the low engine height in the frame, and the steering rod and pitman arm itself. I began with a 6" x 30" x 1/4" piece of T-304 stainless. This will be for the header flanges themselves. You may opt to use 3/8, but I feel as though the 1/4 stainless will be sufficient, especially since the flathead utilizes two bolts per exhaust port. Since the motor was in the frame, it was going to be difficult to make a template, so I cut a rough template, and spray bombed the ports really heavy and gently pushed the pasteboard up and was careful not to smear it. With any luck, this will give you a good template to cut out with the bolt holes in the correct spots. Once I traced the template to the flat plate, I center punched all the holes and proceeded to cutting it out. I used a combination of a plasma cutter, and band saw. Take your time, especially when drilling the holes. Stainless heats up very quickly and will ruin your drill bits if you get too carried away.

 

The next portion is making the main pipe, the tapered portion. I ordered a 4" x 48" piece of exhaust tubing. I cut this in half, so I would have a 2' section for each side. To create a taper, you must take a pie portion out of the pipe. There is a little math involved here. I wanted to use 2" primary tubing, so you must find the circumference of the primaries you will be using. Using 2 x 3.14 x radius, you will find that the circumference for 2" pipe is 6.28. Using a tape or string to measure the distance, mark one end of the 4" pipe, as well as the center. Mark the opposing side of the center and mark the opposite end of the pipe. Now connect the dots to make a triangle. This sounds difficult, but you will see by the pictures it is very simple. I found that placing the pipe in a vice and using a sawzall was the best way to cut this. Be especially carefull to cut precisely, as any variation in the line will mean more filling later. Once you have the pie cut out, place the small end of the pipe in a vice and start clamping down to bring it all together. Using the vice and a rubber hammer, it actually comes together fairly well. Dont worry about small dent from the vice at this time. Once you get the edges pulled together, drag the welder over to the vice and start tacking it up. Take your time, as welding too much at one time will cause the metal to warp. You will notice that the big end has a taper now. You can go ahead and square this up now, or at a later time. Once you get it tacked up good, but before final welding, get a piece of solid pipe and clamp in the vice. Now you can slide the tapered pipe over and tap any imperfections out that the vice may have caused with some body hammers.

 

Now the final portion is by far the most time consuming. I will be wrapping my primaries with heat wrap, so appearance wasnt too crucial for me. I am not very happy with the way mine turned out however. I would suggest purchasing some pre-bent mandrel bent tubing to complete this portion. You could also fill some pipe with sand and heat it to get the desired bends. I opted to cut small pie sections out of a 2" pipe, the bend them and weld it accordingly. As I said, I am not satisfied with the outcome of my primaries, so I wont go into detail on that. Here are some pictures of the final product though. Good luck and thanks for looking.