[Nappy]

My XS650 chop came a little further along over the holiday weekend and now I'm ready to tear into the exhaust. Except I'm not really sure how to do this.
Hoping to get some words of wisdom to get me going....

James on the HAMB did a great job in assembling his own exhaust using a chopped up header and a whole bunch of welding.

Based on stealing his idea, I guess one option would be to get a couple of mandrel bent pieces of stainless, piece together my exhaust, weld it all up with stainless wire and then grind and polish it up.

Or weld it up in regular pipe and get it chromed?

I'm trying to do this cheap, though.
Unfortunately my Harbor Freight pipe bender just crushes exhaust pipe.

Supposedly a local guy can do mandrel bends. If I can mock up some sort of pattern, would it be a good idea to let him bend it up and avoid the welds? How would I mock that up?

I want to have both pipes exit on the same side, so most stock Yamaha exhausts that I've seen are out.

Basically, I'm wondering how you pieced together your custom exhausts, what the advantages might be to doing it a certain way, and what it ended up setting you back $-wise.

Thanks in advance-
~ Rob Napp 'Nappy'

 

[chicoman7]

Get a bunch of bends at your local pep boys or exhaust shoppe. Piece the bends together to get what you want and welded it all up and get it chromed, painted, or wrapped.Its pretty easy. If your worried about performance you can tune the lengths (math, yuck)for better more equal flow.

My XS650 chop came a little further along over the holiday weekend and now I'm ready to tear into the exhaust. Except I'm not really sure how to do this.
Hoping to get some words of wisdom to get me going....

James on the HAMB did a great job in assembling his own exhaust using a chopped up header and a whole bunch of welding.

Based on stealing his idea, I guess one option would be to get a couple of mandrel bent pieces of stainless, piece together my exhaust, weld it all up with stainless wire and then grind and polish it up.

Or weld it up in regular pipe and get it chromed?

I'm trying to do this cheap, though.
Unfortunately my Harbor Freight pipe bender just crushes exhaust pipe.

Supposedly a local guy can do mandrel bends. If I can mock up some sort of pattern, would it be a good idea to let him bend it up and avoid the welds? How would I mock that up?

I want to have both pipes exit on the same side, so most stock Yamaha exhausts that I've seen are out.

Basically, I'm wondering how you pieced together your custom exhausts, what the advantages might be to doing it a certain way, and what it ended up setting you back $-wise.

Thanks in advance-
~ Rob Napp 'Nappy'

 

[GumbyChuck]

I've done both routes...cutting up old junk pipes and starting with fresh stainless J-bends.

pros/cons of the old junk pipes are:
-cheap, if you have the right raw material
-look fine if you wrap/paint them
-not so cheap to chrome
-you might not have the exact bend you want/need
-weld up with flux core MIG if that's what you have

Just did a loooong set of pipes for a honda chop basically for free...used a lot of junk pipes and some header paint. Investment practically $0.
Having the right raw material is key.

pros/cons of stainless j-bends
-can be pricey. I've got probably $200 in the exhaust on my gooseneck.
-look really nice once finished up/ground/polished. No chrome needed. Plus I like the yellowed stainless look once they get hot a few times.
-need to be able to weld stainless. I tig welded mine.

Key on either type of pieced together exhaust is the fitting of the pieces together. My stainless pipes came out really nice; I have to point out where the joints are on it. The pipes on the honda, not so nice, but we were in a big hurry/low $$$/rat chop mode anyways.

Don't know anyone that has mandrel bending equip. at home; it's pretty specialized. What you could do is piece it together to give him a pattern to follow. You wouldn't have to be pretty on the fitting of the joints either.

Hope this helps.

 

[mikes51]

Summit has good prices on 180 degree mandrel bent pipe, they look like the letter "J". Buy some of those and some matching straight pieces.

 

[Slag Kustom]

on the exhausts i have made J bends work the best

tack weld some pipes where you want them to end and just fill inbetween.
use some hose clamps with holes drilled in it to mock up and tack weld keeping pipes lined up.

 

[caffeine]

you can try the fill with sand weld up and bend method...but you'll probably curse a lot.

-Rob

 

[Nappy]

Cool. Thanks for the words of wisdom. I think I'll visit the local scrapyard and see if I can turn up any mandrel bent stuff. Then go from there.

 

[caffeine]

Cool. Thanks for the words of wisdom. I think I'll visit the local scrapyard and see if I can turn up any mandrel bent stuff. Then go from there.

DOUCHEBAG.

 

[ol_scratch]

Cool. Thanks for the words of wisdom. I think I'll visit the local scrapyard and see if I can turn up any mandrel bent stuff. Then go from there.

Hit up the muffler shops for scrap. I made a set of pipes for an old Honda chop I had from shop pieces. Weld, grind down the weld and cover with high temp paint.

The thing on those HF benders is lube the adjustable rollers, so they roll. Might not kink on you, but you have to go really slow.

 

[singledownloop]

i made mine with scrap motorcycle ehaust pipe,i'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.You can buy a piece of pipe shaped like a donut that'll do most systems if your careful how you cut it.I mean if you can keep from wasting any of it.Good luck it's a fun project.

 

[Slag Kustom]

swap meet car headers are great for making pipes and really cheap.