Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

It's meeeeee, w/ another money making scheme

If I could get ahold of say... 10 RB Header/Collector Copies, (mandrel bent, stainless steel, tig welded)woulld $150 shipped be a crazy asking price??

bingoboy

so we're talkin like as good as the real thing here?

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

Depends on how you look at it. It won't have the RB logo on it... but it won't be made of 1/8th-inch mild steel either.

Flanges, Bends, Pipe Thickness, all the same as the RB unit. Just the materials, and price are different/better.

bingoboy

got any prototype pictures? for those more scheptic than i of course . i have definate interest in this .

bingoboy

edit: dbl post

StonedDrone

If the only difference is that it is made out of stainless steal, I would be interested

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

*stainless steel

Pictures will be made available in the future.

Skepticism is AWESOME! That means you think it's too good to be true

bingoboy

thats what i get for posting at 3am...i can't even spell skeptic....good lord thats bad one. but yeah you seem to be a good-ish guy so with some decent pictures i'm sure you'll have no problem unloading 10 headers on "scheptics" like me.

Jimmy325i

1/8" thick stainless header primaries would put that thing in the 75lb range of bulletproof overkill tubbiness.

You'd want to trim the tubing thickness down if you were to make them out of SS. Stainless is also hell on cutting tools, and I'm sure the bender isn't going to like it much either. 304SS is hard enough to melt HS drill bits at 20ga thicknesses. Maybe if you got the material down to a lighter more workable thickness you could be onto something.

Have you contacted anyone about doing the bending for you? Mandrel bending is spendy. A run of 10 probably wouldn't make you any money let alone even get you to break even.

You'll also need to source a SS exhaust flange for the motor. (I'm sure 2.5" flanges are readily avalible) Making that flange out of SS will require plasma cutting. (even the mild steel ones are plasma cut) I'd venture to guess that the flange alone in 3/8" 304 would also be over 5lbs.

Warranty? RB's have a lifetime warranty. What are you offering?

Stainless is a great material when you need shiny hard durrable parts, but working with it is a bitch.

bingoboy

ooo the plot thickens...heheh. you could see by my enthusiasm that i know nothing of metal working.

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

To kill your little rant Jimbob...

I'm not sure how much the header will weigh, but it will be under 75#'s, even if we have to decrease tube thickness (granted, 1/8th IS overkill) but we'll still keep the ID of the pipe 2-inch.

As per the machining end, don't worry about it. The way I'm getting these copies made is a friend (grinder/welder) @ a Stainless Steel Mfg. Plant (Paul Mueller if you must know) so the actual machining won't be a problem. As per cost, the benders want something like... a sub-sandwich per header. 7/16 flanges too

These headers will be AS GOOD as RB's. The dimensions might be a bit different as to save weight (hell, we could make them of Mild, Stainless, we're even thinking about making one for each of us out of Ti... because we CAN) but all and all, RB Copies.

Now, for the warranty. You want a warranty, spend the extra $50-100 and get the RB... that simple. If your header is cracked, bent, whatever... it's your fault. We won't be sending out shitty products.

Seeing as I'm SURE you're watching this post to nit-pick at me; when do your tracks open Jimmy?

M5150

is it possible to make it go all the way to the catback instead of needing to use a mid pipe like in the RB?

Jimmy325i

Yeah, I have a really neat little 316SS clutch slave cylinder push rod that took 3 hours on the lathe to turn down and now no one can even see it. It's also about 20% heavier than the stock one was.

I was going to use a narrowed flywheel so I made the pushrod longer as a practice piece for learning the metal lathe. Oh did I get practice... practice sharpening carbides, practice resetting the cutting angle, practice staying awake while bored out of my mind, practice seeing how much deflection a little chunk of extremely hard material can have while only supporting one end of it in the chuck.

Keep in mind this is only a 3/8' diameter part too. I started with perfect OD bar stock and it took ages to turn that thing down to the finished piece. Stainless is not for the faint of heart or the cheap. If you were to do a production run of say 100,000 parts you could possibly make out alright once you absorbed the costs of converting the header to a CAD file, and then absorbed the costs of the mandrel bending, (just pipe and machinist time once you have it as a CAD file) Someone probably makes the flanges (I thought I'd seen them before in SS) and then its a matter of building a jig and welding up all those pipes.

Stainless is also kinda spendy. for 1.25 OD .120" wall tubing you're looking at $5/foot. There went another 30 bucks into materials.

I almost forgot that you'll also need a collector made for you. Good luck!

IF you were going to keep them as 1/8" wall thickness primaries and I was right about them being 75# you'll be spending $50 of the $150 on shipping.

I recently looked into a mandrel bent one-off single exhaust for my header back and the guy said I'd be looking at about $1K.

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

Not really. But, all you'd need is a peice of pipe, cut to length w/ a flange on either end.

Seeing as noone has ever done it, I'll do measuring, and get the length of pipe needed.

Oh, and a presilencer to replace the RB Presilencer (w/o a split air pipe) is in the works too...

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

Jimmy,

I'm going to college (and have 5 years exp.) in CADD, CAM, and CNC work. In AutoCAD, each pipe is nothing more than 1 splined line.

Your SS pricing is retail, not wholesale... but that's beside the point; Paul Mueller (strangly enough) has 20' lengths of SS SCRAP free for the taking (by employees )

Lastly, what size exhaust are you looking for? We're planning on making 2.5' SS Mandrel Passanger Exit Cat-Backs for ourselves. (Made spacifically with CS Mufflers/Copies in mind) I'm sure if you're still looking by the time we get that made (should be before tracks open) we could produce another one for ya'

Jimmy325i

I'm not trying to nit pick you. Now you're just getting pissy that I don't want to talk to you on AIM I guess....

That's cool if you have access to the equipment and such. What happens when your buddies get fired for misuse of company property? Worth it? I don't think so.

I'm a little late on this response because I was busy researching to back up my statements in the previous post. I'm all about entreprenurial endevours like this. Sure beats you selling weed. (or whatever else you were pushing when we first came to heads)

If you can make them for the price you claim... goodie! Someone will surely buy it. BTW: The RB unit was $210 delivered with new flange gasket from mazdatrix.

Jimmy325i

I find it hard to believe you were doing any of the afore mentioned computerized metal working at 14... You're two months younger than my gf.

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

Pedophile.

I started taking CAM/CADD/CNC classes the summer between my 8th grade, and freshman years of highschool. I've never gotten a grade below an A in any of the classes, and intend to test out of DDT (Drafting and Design Technology) 100, 110, 115, 150, and 250 within the next week. (I changed majors from a pipe dream, to something I'm good at.)

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

2x Post

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

More Answering Jimmy;

@ Paul Mueller, as long as you're not on the clock, you're free to use equipment. It's a hell of a company to work for (I'm looking at getting a job there myself)

As per the RB system... to MY door (w/ included ACV blockoff plate, O2 sensor extension, and gasket) was $218... and 4 months.

Lastly (for THIS post anyway) CNC/CADD/CAM isn't 100% metalworking; most of those years were spent operating a 2D wood router. (Wood is much more forgiving to work on than steel)

Jimmy325i

well, mine was only $210 and I've had it for well over 6 mo's.

Funny, the internet was just becoming availible my sr year of HS... oh how times change.

Very cool about that company. Not many like them out there that let you use their stuff while not making them coinage in the process. Then again, more and more are realizing a happy employee is a productive one.

Honestly, More power to ya if you can pull these off. I was just trying to be devils advocate to make sure you didn't waste time and money staging this attemp only to find you couldn't make a go of this.

Titanium headers would be sweet!

Phu5ion

L.A.,

sounds great and i would be so in for $150 shipped. If only i didn't have a a few conserns about noise, passing emissions, and being street legal.

Maybe you could offer something like a short extension pipe to connect the header to the cat? i know it would be louder than getting an RB presilencer but again i want to try to remain emissions legal (e.g. visual test).

Anyways, good luck to ya if you decide to go into this endevour. I hope it pans out.

Yeah, Ti would be sweet, but what would be the price on something like that?

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

Actually, the guy making the header is planning to make a "shorty header" that bolts in place of the hotbox. This won't flow nearly as well as the full length header, but much better than the hotbox. He's only planning to make 2 of those (one for each of us until he gets the full headers made) but that's still 2 to sell once we get the full length.

The price of the Ti headers would COMPLETELY eat of any profit from this little venture... if that gives you any idea.

Jimmy325i

and since you can't weld Ti to steel the whole thing would need to be Ti. wonder what a 3/8" thick Ti header flange would cost? hahahaha wouldn't weigh ****, but dayum it would cost a buttload...

Phu5ion

wow, that would be very cool. I hope to see pics once that's made and installed.