theres a work of art!

 

why thank you!

haha.

A little stainless welding to start the day off.

Seeing as you all asked for a shot of the inside of one of my welds, I finally got around to remembering to take one of the outside and inside on a full-penetration weld


Enjoy!

 

Damn, man! You're really going all out on this custom mod of yours. Your dedication and skill set is impeccable for this kind of work. Can't wait to see the final result.

 

What is this mess ? the pipe seam doesnt line up...JUNK, trash it and start over

Looking good brah!

 

not much more for this evening. Been sick all day, so had a lot of down time.

but thought I would show off some of the tools of the trade... or at least the newest addition to my little workbench


Drill index!
This box holds 115 bits, but I have 185 in total with this set (another 60 metric sized bits and 10 large diameter bits going from .5" to 1" )






and then back to fab work, ran one of my prettiest welds this evening.
Looks this nice because it was from polished SS to a machined flange and had a supurb fitup. no better structurally than the other welds, but it does turn pretty colors

 

I think I found the solution to all this tight custom work and limited space constraints you are experiencing!! See below........

 

that pic would be so much better if everything wasnt so chromed out

 

I just wish people would forget about that pile of crap, and google would take away all the pic's... Thought it was totally hideous when I first saw it in 2009 and it just seems to get worse and be more of a disgrace as time goes on. There are not many cars I wish upon the crusher but that one is right behind the Pontiac Aztec!

 

That mini really does look like **** :(

Honestly I thought about doing a 4g63 + awd swap in a mini for quite some time, it would just be a pita.

 

one of the few welds I ran today

 

 

been a few days, and I have been doing a little work here and there, but I am busy making cigar boxes as graduation presents for a few friends.

but anywho.

For those who have never seen a billet compressor wheel from comp, it is a pretty thing.
(had to take off the housing to weld on a different fitting)




next up on the list should look pretty darn familiar, but also slightly different.



Needed a smooth surface for an O-ring seat on the BPV, so I removed the piston, chucked it up in the mill, centered the mill's "0" in the middle of the BPV and had it make it 40mm OD. Took 5 minutes once it started cutting (its a router, not a real "mill" )

came out well enough though!



and next up a little welding P0RN


These types of welds are possible when I have clean metal, PERFECT fitup, and it requires a steady hand as you have to keep the torch within ~ .050 of the weld pool



AAAND I am saying that to excuse this piece of crap weld Where the "slip joint" I expanded out I was a bit over zealous on and had to throw a lot of filler in there.
The only "not pretty part" is actually smack dab on the bottom where someone would actually see but at least it is void free and solid.






Speaking of that piece, it is this



Basically mirroring the stock S exhaust setup except there is a vibrant resonator right after the down pipe and then two magnaflow mufflers.

Everything is 100% straight through perf. tube, so low resistance, and all of it is 2.5"

The other difference is the exhaust will come out in one tip off to the side (think base Cooper)

In fact I may use the base cooper aero bumper if I can find one. haha

(anybody have one in jet black and good condition they want to sell?!)

and yes, it is an extremely tight fit.
Barely even a fingers width in some places.
But I have given it the "vigorous shake test" as I like to call it and it does not contact anywhere, so "phew!"








oh, and there will be another V-band at the back to allow me to take off that loop when I want to and just run a bypass pipe to a single muffler, or even to remove both mufflers and run a straight pipe (should take less than 10 minutes to re-configure as I wish once it is all done)

 

you should have put the muffler on the passenger side to offset the weight of the driverside

 

Look in the last photo. you will see the other muffler on the ground that is going on the passenger side.

 

why two mufflers and not 1?

 

well it will actually have a turbo, a resonator and then two mufflers in series

for its "quiet" "sleeper" mode

If you note the V band however,

The drivers side muffler can be removed and replaced with a extension piece that connects to the "second" (now only) muffler (on the passenger side) for a sportier tone. (I have run this exact combination before and it has some highway drone but not bad. Would not want it for 6 hours + though [long road trips])

this will be "sport" mode

OR you can remove both mufflers and use the third piece of tubing I will be welding up so the exhaust just has the resonator at the downpipe outlet, then is a straight shot out the back.

This will be "hooliganism mode"

 

nice exhaust setup, you could have gotton a diverter pipe with an eliectric switch to allow the changing of the setup on the fly, so you can hooligan around till the cops are called, hit the switch, then back into stealth mode.

that compressors looks very simular to ones we make here at my job

 

hooligan mode ? you mean racecar?

If it was me doing this, i would do one muffler and one resonator. Adding all that extra piping and using extra vband flanges is 1: expensive, and 2: heavier.

 

well the car is staying full interior with air con and a stock ride height, so weight and race status isnt my biggest concern

plus it still weighs significantly less than stock and the configurability only adds the weight of the V-bands... so 1 lbs a band.. ish... I am not too worried about it upsetting my mid-corner balance

 

you should get those quick release vband clamps. I just got them for my exhaust.

 

well these are quick-ish release.

I have tried other V bands in the past and have never been happy with them (most leak) so I ONLY use vibrant hardware these days.

Has a nice machined lip which helps centering and really improves sealing, plus they have a nice lip for welding from.

And those you just loosen the T-bolt and then a quick release clamp can be popped open and the joint comes apart nicely.


And SaltySalt,

I had one on the first exhaust I built and it just gave me tons of problems. From not having a whole lot of space to other reasons.

Still toying with the idea, but if it does come, it will be later.

 

6 days -- you still out there?

 

Definitely, Vibrant is the ONLY thing I'll use.

 

still here!
Just waiting on parts for now and busy on other projects with tighter deadlines.

waiting on a few things from Germany for the car, and the plates for the new intercooler should be finished with machining monday (hopefully)

the new rear valence came in today (Cooper, non-S), so I got that installed, and can now work on finishing the exhaust (needed to know where the tip was going to end up before I did any more welding )

so I guess I can provide a micro update ?
(pardon the dirt)

before:





after:



Broke the left side reflector when attempting to remove it from the old trim piece , but its okay. new one on order. haha. Was just old and brittle. happens


but as for this week I have really been busy with other things.

Had to pull everything out of the garage because I have people in installing insulation (there is an apartment above the garage... where I will live once I finish building that as well....)

so that limits work.

aaand get ready

As well as a bunch of my friends are graduating this weekend (university) and for the close friends of the group that I did a cruise with this past year, I made everyone single cigar boxes out of exotic wood. and filled them with a nice cigar of course (GrayCliff Chateau Gran Cru)

most of the boxes were made from a laminate I put together which was Wenge (.75") paduak (.125") purpleheart (.125") paduak (.125") wenge (.75")

but I am still working on those.
Those boxes are the ones that just hold a single cigar, and are for the guys.

Due to order quantities however, I had an extra cigar (on top of the ones that were already accounted for), so I decided to give the "Rose" of the friend group a box of her own with a cutter in it and an extra cigar.

She doesnt smoke, but if all of the guys are she will join in, but I figured she could share with someone else (invite a friend of her own), plus I wanted to do one box with two slots and space for a cigar cutter. Turned out nicely.

This one is from a single piece of bolivian rosewood that I cut in half and then routed out the two sides.

Just finished polishing and waxing it tonight and put the hinges and magnets in.









Turned out well I think.
Magnets are a tad weak unfortunately though :/

good thought, will know better next time (to use larger ones)


So to sum up, yeah its been 6 days... I have too many damn hobbies! lol!

 

Once again -- Wow.