HIRING OUT WELDING
I've found a good welder at work that is willing to help me out and repair my exhaust bits. However, he is much happier to not do the fabrication part. I need to provide him all the parts I need welded and he will stick them together properly.
I found a good diameter of exhaust adapter pipe to make the front flanges of the horse collar, and ground down the front of what's left to give a flat surface to weld to. I figure I'll let him make his weld preps, as I would probably do it wrong. I hung the pieces on the bike to mock it up and see how they line up, and it all looks good. I'll cut grooves for clamping after it's welded.
- mock up
- IMG_2115.JPG (82.27 KiB) Viewed 324 times
As for the headers, I've come up with a solution. I'm going to use the aftermarket pair and wrap them. To repair the one with the missing collar, I'm going to cut off the OTHER collar, and also cut off the OEM mounting flange from the header that doesn't have a mate. Then have my welder guy attach the OEM flange to the aftermarket header. This will give me a for-sure good connection to the head, and it will be okay if it's ugly/mismatched because noone will ever see it, because it's underneath the head.
- Here I cut off the second mounting collar
- IMG_2110.JPG (99.11 KiB) Viewed 324 times
I will also provide the welder with one of my junk heads for fixturing. This is the intact header mounted with no gaskets into the head. Setting it on the machined intake port faces on the table, the lower edge of the outlet sits 10.5" from the table. This seems like the most important measurement, because there's a little mounting wiggle room in the other dimensions.
- measurement
- IMG_2109.JPG (116.26 KiB) Viewed 324 times
I also had to drill out one screw that holds the chromey bits onto the horse collar. It had siezed good. I was fortunately able to get the screw remains out and still have a thread to put another screw back in. Once the horse collar is welded, I will attack it with the wire wheel and a can of VHT black. The chromey bits were (for some unknown reason) painted over with silver rattle-can. I've discovered that underneath, it doesn't look all that bad. I will work on removing the paint, and we'll be in business. It's not perfect chrome, but none of it on this bike is perfect.
- There's shiny under there!
- IMG_2130.JPG (64.81 KiB) Viewed 324 times
I still have to finish removing the old pipe remnants from the OEM flange, and I will be able to send all the bits off to be welded.