My Cuda Project Part II...now at Bruning Auto Design

[DRJDVM's '69]

Rob and I built all the exhaust, got it tacked up and then plan was to have a real good "TIG man" do the final weld to make it all nice and pretty....

So once I got the crossmember stuff all dialed in, I took it to a local fab guy and had everything but the front V-band clamps final welded. Even before that, the front pipes to the headers were alittle "sprung" after everything was tacked together.... I had to kinda "squeeze" the pipes together to get the collector V-band clamps matched up...wasnt too crazy about having that tension there... so I orded up some flex couplers just in case...

After the joints were TIG welded, the "sprung" section was worse. I messed with ratchet straps to try and bend them in a little etc, which worked, but still wasnt happy. So I cut the front section off and added the flex couplers and its way better now...there is no tension between exhaust and headers at all.... This will also allow for some engine movement and heat expansion etc etc.......I dialed in the front V-band flange and header flange and took it all back to the TIG man to get that part final welded...should be done next week




Even before that, I had to cut some sections out of the floor to clear exhaust and v-band clamps and a tiny notch in the frame to get alittle more clearence from header to frame. So I closed up all that stuff....