Now, before you drag McTool into some depraved rant about Olga, I need to tell you I'm talking about exhaust pipes.

I want to bend up a set of custom exhaust pipes to make some high pipes like the original 750 Sport that ran at Imola. Long megaphones down each side.

Anyone have any experience in bending up header pipe in nice graceful bends? All hints and suggestions welcomed. Been trolling the web, and finding lots of half baked ideas.


Cheers, Phil

not an expert but if you don`t have a pipe bender all you can do is fill the tube with sand, heat it up red hot and then bend.

G.

Monsters have a few various designs that could be incorporated into your design

The alternative would be to use the pipe already bent then cut and splice, tack weld up into your own flow angle and if you are not confident in your own welding give it to some one else more able to finish off.

If you are bending your own you will need to also make up a strong jig to bend with and have lots of heat available.

Olga sounds an interesting lady tell us more???

A bender is the way to go but not the only way. Hand bending generally requires a jig, heat and a good pair of gloves and a lot of time and patience

Here is an article on sand bending


http://www.rorty-design.com/content/sand_bending.htm

It would most likely be quicker and cheaper to buy pre bent sections of pipe and weld it into the system you require


You can always make your own bender as some have done.

(hillbilly style)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mawebpskaWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8mMQbEkr8w
Getting the angle right is really difficult specially if the pipe is not bent only in one dimension

Thanks for the inputs guys.
I like the idea of buying prebent tubing, but I am having a hard time finding some 1.5" tubing with a big radius bend.

I love the old style technique of the Yosimura video.

If I can find a bender for cheap, i'll jump on it, and then just resell it when I'm done.

Cheers, Phil

Phil rather than looking for pipe see if you can find another exhaust with the type of curve you require then cut and splice that part - as stated look at some monster exhausts on fleabay or gumtree (if you have that) or similiar It sometimes works out cheaper as I have found to my own cost.

After looking at countless videos, and websites for benders, I came to the realization that buying bent sections is the cheapest way forward. I found a great selection at Summit Racing http://www.summitracing.com
I'm then going to have the welded up pipes ceramic coated.

Thanks for the input. I'll post pictures of the pipe building process on the Sport page.

Cheers, Phil

good idea Phil, even if youre not a v-good welder the bench grinder can work miracles, my headers were made from approx 14 different bits and pieces all welded together, and recently been ceramic coated by jet-hot...still yet to try them out, but guaranteed up to 704deg c...which wont be a problem unless the engine is running lean.