Building your own exhaust. Who's done it?

I've done several of them, if you can weld you can do it.

 

I think I found a winner. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

 

2-1/2" flowmaster kit from Summit

Patriot headers and collectors, used an aluminum donut gasket to seal the collectors. All other joints used V-band clamps. All joints butt welded.































Tucked up outta sight....

 

I typically use the combo bends from speedway. They seem to be a good compromise between price and a consistent diameter through the bend. The stuff from Summit (either the summit brand or the hooker brand) seem to neck down though the bend compared to the straight pieces. It makes it a bit difficult to blend the weld. Also, they are uncoated so they ceramic coat very well.

Here are some the I've worked on recently,

 

I do mine out of mandrel bends, have even started doing custom headers for myself and others.
There's lots of advantages to doing it yourself, but the BIG one is that I do a lot of Kustoms, and shops never seem to do them high enough in the frame, that they don't bang or hit the rear, or scrape the road. I can do it exactly the way I want and avoid all the fitment problems.

 

Looks good guys! I love when I look under a car and the exhaust is nicely tucked up, smooth flowing and looks like it was meant to be like that!

 

Where did you get the rubber piece for the hanger? That is pretty slick!! Todd

 

ive seen them at my local napa ,and autozone - a few different styles

 

man thats some nice lookin work!

 

I lucked out some years back. A neighbour who was a local building inspector learned of a dairy building that was being torn down, he got a dump truck load of food quality stainless pipe of various sizes for almost nothing. I did a barter deal with him, got enough 14 gauge stainless pipe and mandrel bends to fab a system for my '40.

I was working with a rolling chassis. Tacked some braces to the frame, used cheap muffler clamps to hold ceramic coated Flowmasters in place. Pieced and tacked the sysem together, removed it to finish weld. It's a good idea to back gas stainless when welding it so the back side of the weld doesn't look like a bunch of grapes. Reassembled the system, found it didn't fit worth a dam in places, ended up having to run the tig torch around one side of the pipe in places to shrink it and draw the piece back into position.

Also, bear in mind when fitting pipes in tight quarters that it will grow considerably in length when it gets hot- 3/4" to 1" is common.

 

MP&C, really like the way you've done this. I've never understood honkin' big tailpipe tips, megs, etc. Why do these things have to dominate the rear view of the car?..

 

Listen to the advice Cliffy gives. I have a "stainless" system on the wife's car I traded for a case of beer. It's corroding in the salt and sand they put down in winter. If I would have paid more than I did I'd be mad. Exhaust is a chore that spending the money now saves you time and $$$ down the line.

Those boxes of parts have been a good deal for me, I've done a few that way. I found, however, if you're doing duals that tacking them together first then laying it on a flat surface to weld it is a good idea, I use my garage floor. Like the man said, a degree or two becomes inches at the end of the pipe. On a flat surface, they'll weld straighter than leaving them on the car.

When I do the next one, I'll make the pipes up to the mufflers and have someone bend up the tubes that go over the axle. I'm getting old and lazy...and I want it done right the first time.

good luck!

 

Who makes the absolute TIGHTest bends in 2 1/2" - 3" exhaust tube? My block huggers are situated so that I need to have a 90 degree bend as close to the flange as possible. Close enough for the flange to just about touch when it's welded to the pipe...

 

SPD exhaust in Cali sell mandrels in various radius' for one size pipe. From tight to wide.

 

I purge weld my stainless exhaust also. Much nicer finished product. It will move all over when you weld it. Try and keep all your cuts as nice as you can. The better the tubes fit together the less they will move.

 

built mine..its one of my favorite things to do on a build...

 

We got the rubber pieces and the metal rods both from somewhere online, can't remember the company, sorry. We did a search on exhaust hangers and found someone who sold all the parts in qty for a decent price.

IMHO, I've always thought the rounded features on the rear ends of cars like the 55 wagon I did there, already have a "finished" look, and anything else on the back in the way of "here I am!" exhaust tips only detract from that. The more simple & clean, the better.

 

Here's one I did from scraps - some I had laying around- some I had to borrow. I thught it came out ok for what it is.

The exhaust previous to this was done in a similar way. They used turn downs welded together to get an offset. Mine was only slightly more complicated as I tried to keep it a little tighter.

Stainless sure would have been nice, but this was hard to beat - pricewise

 

My '46 Lincoln Coupe is resting on a stock '56 Lincoln chassis. What I did for my budget build was buy stock replacement pipes (already bent to factory specs) that weave in and out of the large X member and over the rear axle. The standard system used two mufflers and two resonators which I replaced with 4 NOS Glasspaks of about the same length. This custom is not built to win at the drags so I didn't need 2 1/2" or 3" pipes. Could be an easy option for some.