Well this is my shoebox i've been building for past two years. I'm running a 365 caddy with a 700r4 behind it(scoff if you must), nestled into a mustang ii stub from Fatman. All along in this build I have known that the stock manifolds were not going to fly, and I was fairly certain Jeg's doesnt have these headers in stock(even though my muscle car friends acutally did ask me if i checked). Well I ran into matt from gear drive (lakeheaders.com) at the pileup and he told me he could hook me up with a set of flanges, and after that it was a box-o-bends and some hooker collectors and I was ready for business.I started off by mouting my flanges securely and locating the collector where I wanted it to end up. I tacked the collector with a scrap chunk of rod to the frame to ensure it didn't move. From there on it was a matter of fitting the tubes to the collector. At this point I wasn't worried about the tube/flange connection. Once all the tubes were tacked in place, I pulled the header out of the car. I clamped the flange in the vise and began to flare the tubes to fit the flanges. I began by tacking the tube wherever it met the flange. After all the tubes were securely tacked I started to heat the tubing from inside out and flare it to the flange.Next we weld on the collector and sand and metal finish til your blue in the face.After a few days of welding and sanding I finished up the passenger side. Part 2 will be the driver's side and the twist around the steering column. When both are done I will silicon bronze any imperfections and send them out for chrome. Over and out Petemattersen
Those are pretty. Nice work That's a great tip...using the old manifold to keep from warping them while welding them up on the bench.
Well I didn't really take that great of build pics, but I did get a few of the driver's side header all finished. This completes the "large tasks" left for the build. It's getting down to the small stuff now and i'm in the zone.........here's a few pics I snapped.