Another bender thread...sorry guys

[deere_x475guy]

Ok...heres the deal. Wife wants to have a throatier (sp) sound to her exhaust. She has been bugging for a few years now to do this. The exhaust that is on it now is fine. I want to replace from the cat back with stainless and come out each side of the rear tires. Any of you have some expertise in this that can lend some ideas would be greatly appreciated. I really want a bender and figure if she wants it bad enough I can get the bender with her blessing..))...LOL. (I know...sneaky.... But hey...it worked for furniture for someone else.. I also need to find a source for the stainless....

Bob

[banzaitoyota]

For an Exhaust you are better off with Mandrel Bent tubibg. I buy mine from www.burnsstainless.com and cut the bends and weld them to the correct configuration. JOhn

[bluesman2a]

Bob,

I would recommend finding another cause for justifying your bender.

For a GOOD bender, you're looking in the $500+ just to get started. You can have somebody hang a LOT of exhaust for that. I just had a complete Flowmaster setup hung in my Jeep, from the collector back for $250.

Bending is something of an art, you'll wind up with LOTS of "experiments" to start with. This is not something I would recommend for a first project, with stainless material which is a little spendy to start with...

Have you ever seen guys hang exhaust? There's something of an art there too... I would not want to do it on a manual/tube bender like I have.

Now on the OTHER hand, imagine what you could get her going with when it comes to ideas of racks, lawn-furniture, implements of destruction... All for pennies per foot of material.

Also one other word of advice: choose your dies wisely. They will be the brunt of your cost and will dictate certain design criteria (see the desk thread). I currently have a 1.75" round, 1.5" round, 1" round, 1.5" square, and 1" square. I typically use the 1"er's and the 1.75 the most, but 1.75 tube can be hard to find and pricey, so I'd check your local steel vendors before you decide on dies.

[deere_x475guy]

Thanks Bluesman. I knew the bender would be pricey. I wasn't sure of the cost of materials till I went to the link provided. Whew..

[stever]

Any of you that want to build your own bender.

http://www.kinzers.com/don/MachineTools/bender/

[Bob]

Hi Bob,

This is Bob.

Maybe you could scale back the project. Just drill some holes in the muffler and use that to justify a drill doctor. (hee hee).

I have an exhaust project on my "when I retire" list but was thinking of just buying straight and pre-bent sections at PEP Boys and maybe a tubing expander. No cat on a '68 Dodge van. Plan would be to convert single to dual exhaust. I'm not sure about the "cup" flared ends that clamp to the manifolds.

As with your project, the current system is working fine so the "Don't mess with nothing the works" rule is in control for now.

Bob

[DaveD]

Just weld two of these in. One for each side, right off the header pipes.

http://www.mccordcg.com/mpp/mpp.htm

[INTP]

I got some mandrel bends from Jeg's for the side exhaust on my mustang. You CAN bend the tubes with a bender like that, but you'll restrict the flow. Hard to say the effect it will have on the sound, but it could limit HP a small amount.

And yes, hanging is an art, and not one that I've mastered yet.

[russell]

flowmaster mufflers will increase performance and give it a growl...

[Planet X]

Hey if you still want to go stainless this web site has the best prices on j & U bends I've found so far http://www.stainlessworks.net/

Exhaust tubing is pretty **** thin and will kink like no tommorrow in the model 3 bender I have. But I was using mild steel, stainless should be a bit tougher, just could not afford the material to find out.

[deere_x475guy]

Guys...thanks for all the replys on this. A couple of things have come up recently that is going to have more priority so I guess I am just going to have a shop here in Lansing do something with it. I think I am going to be busy building more of these buckets.

Bob