No, you'd be wrong. It was done by one of Chris's welders.....although the merge collector is done on a special jig.....still done by hand...........here is a picture of the headers I made for my blown flathead and the mod's he did with my Dawson headers for the Maverick. The same guy also welds all of Chris's Cup Car systems, and that is why he get's over $7k for each one.............and because they are SS.
I too have seen lots of hand welded parts that you'd swear were done by machine. My welds are not among them, although I have done some purdy stuff occasioanlly.
I can do purdy stuff with MIG, but my TIG welding will probably not even come close in this lifetime......................although I'd like to.
That's pretty much true for any type of welding. Bigger the gap between parts, the bigger the chance the weld's gonna look like crap too. I built a pasenger side header for the Bronco frame I was working on last winter using two sets of headers, one had 1-5/8 tubes, the other was 1-3/4, I used the smaller tubing, cut up to make joiner pieces for the larger tubing, this also made for easier welding. Of course I wasn't too concerned about maximum flow here, but the joiner pieces sure simplified the process.
so the way I understand this I need to have a slip fit exhaust end right? they can't be butt to butt?
I would say since you are just cutting the flange off that you could but the two pipes together as long as they are both the same size OD, then just clamp them with the band type connector. If you wanted a slip fit where the exhaust pipe would slip into your collector or your collector would slip into the exhaust pipe, you would need to weld the tabs on and bolt them together............just like these; http://www.spdexhaust.com/pdfs/AccPDFs/Retainers.pdf
In this case I would use a band connector like the one BadDad posted, it will work with the but to but like you have.
I purchased these .... curious to see how it works... the reviews online were pretty good . . . [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006HLFB0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00"]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006HLFB0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00[/ame]
Yay looks just like mine... Sad too say the scraping is the biggest reason I haven't gotten mine redone yet...
Mo, The pictures of your exhaust look pretty good to me.................the rule of thumb is that nothing.....including exhaust should not hang lower than the rim of your wheel. If the tire ever went flat....you don't want the exhaust hitting the payment before the wheel...................... For your exhaust...........removing the collector flange would be good and I'd use a slip fit and the weld on tabs..............or I guess you could use another clamp like you bought for the rear.
