[Essex_29]

I got in some quality time in the garage today, and started working on the headers. Annoyingly enough,
all the header tubes on the driver's side can't be at the same angle as there's not enough room for the
 last one, it would hit the firewall. On the right hand side it might work, but then I may do it the same
way to make it all symmetrical.

The first tube is cut and ready for tacking.



I built a jig for cutting the primary tubes in the right angle. It took a few tries to get it right. I cut the
first and the last tube on the driver's side, and am planning on tacking them first, and then jigging
things up to ge the four in between welded to the same angle.

I ground one flange with 24, 60, 80, 280 and 320 grit and the polished it, as you can see in the above pic.
 Then I took the other eleven flanges and got them down to 80 grit, and took the rest of the evening off.

[EDNY]

When you start welding I'd be curious as to the amperage setting you wind up using (TIG or MIG).

[TFoch]

Can't wait to see how those headers come out!

[sammons]

Nice!

[Essex_29]

I'll keep you posted, EDNY. I'm a beginner TIG welder, and have planned to have a buddy weld the visible
welds, though.
TFoch and sammons,
can't but  hope they come out nice.

The next day I expected to continue through finer grits with the flanges. For some odd reason I decided it's time
to try if they will all fit in their places on the cylinder heads. Turned out that... they don't.
Mathematically there should be a 50% chance to get a flange the right way. turned out nine of the eleven
flanges I was working on were ground on the wrong side. What are the odds???



Actually all the flanges have to be the same side out, which of course lessened the probability to get them right
without checking. Anyway, I took a deep breath inside my respirator, and hit them on the other side. Today there
were just a couple left, and then I sanded them all with 180 and 230 grit. Finally a polish with a cotton buffing
wheel on the corded drill held in the bench wise.



More polishing to do later when they're welded.
It's no mirror finish, but maybe I can get them a bit brighter later. At least they're no supposed to rust.

[Essex_29]

I found that a big thick M10 washer on the lower flange bolt placed the tube on the  right height, so I could use
that as a partial jig to get the tubes centered on the flanges. Then I proceeded cutting pipes at the right angle, to
get them pointed a bit rearwards. As I explained earlier, all the tubes had to be cut in differing angles. Then
the vertical part of the tubes were angled backwards about 4 degrees.
Here the first and last tube are tacked to their respective flanges at the correct angle, then the level was taped
to them (used only as a straightedge, of course) to aid in getting the rest of the pipes tacked in to fit.



First I set the angle right, then measured how much too long the pipe was, and then tried to shoretn it to the
 same angle. It kinda worked. Timeconsuming at any rate.


Finally got the six driver's side primaries tacked to the flanges.  The primaries will go down through the
 fender, so less than you can see here will be visible when the fenders are done.



I like these headers, they will not hide the fact that there's a multi cylinder engine in this ride. Big grin



Yes, this will visually work. The engine will look awesomely wide with the headers done on both sides.

So inspiring to get something done that really shows. There hasn't been much of this kind of things
done since newyears, so I really needed this inspiration boost.

[TFoch]

Wow!! Now that looks kick ass!!!

[sixball]

I agree!

[chopper526]

Great job, that sure looks good!

[62131]

Awesome job,

[sammons]

Those pipes look great so far 👍

[Essex_29]

Thank you all for the positive comments!

It took me four evenings to cut the six pipes for the right hand side and tack them. When I got up
to speed, the three last primaries took about one hour each to get cut right. As I don't have any
extra tubes, I had to be patient and shorten them little by little. I had already cut the very first
one too short, but luckily that was the rear most one on the driver's side, and the front ones
are about ³/₄" shorter, so I could just make it the front most one.



I like how the over the frame headers make the engine visually wide, because even if it's a 12 cylinder
engine, it's small and narrow, just 304-ish cubic inches (3.31" bore, 2.95" stroke) with a 60 degree bank angle.



I probably mentioned it before, those electric Quardrajets are there just to plug the holes in the intake.

[EDNY]

FYI If anyone needs quadrajet parts..I have a collection of them as parts units.

[Essex_29]

I like the Quadrajet carbs, A couple cars that I had ran great with them. They're pretty big
too, I heard they are something upwards to 800 cfm, so good for some performance stuff, even,
if you get them sorted. I was going to use them on this build, but my intake is so short that two
of them would have looked out of place.

 I started my day removing the exhaust primaries and loading them in my trusty rusty Chevy wagon
and hauled my load to a friend who's better at TIG welding than I am. I thought they looked so
nice, being so many, that I just had to snap a pic of them.



The very first parts I bought (several years ago) for my next hot rod project was a couple Brittish
oil bath air cleaners. I like the cool stickers, and will try to get something similar for them
when they're painted.



I cut the throats off of the air cleaners and made a couple standard bases to fit the Edelbrock
carbs. Sadly they are too close together, so I had to cut about an inch off the side of each  air
cleaner. I'll weld them together to a unit. They're fully functional now, but I'll use paper
elements if I can find any that I can make fit.



I think the oil bath filters will boost the oldtimey engine look that I am going for.

[EDNY]

I like the direction you are going in from top to bottom!