THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER":kszbthk6 said:
shmoozo":kszbthk6 said:
Out of curiousity have you decided on a finish for the exhaust? I mean, you could build the entire thing from stainless and then polish it...
I decided to go with polished stainless. Does anybody have a source for a piece of 4" polished stainless steel, preferably in the Great Lakes area? Cheap? I s'pose I could get some heavy truck exhaust stack. I need about an 8 foot section.
So you'd be using this for the pipe that runs along the right side of the speedster, right?
Hmmm ... I dunno about
cheap, but ... Burns Stainless has 4" diameter 304 stainless 16 gauge tubing for about $28/foot and I would think that's unpolished. They're in California. Link
HERE.
They also have the higher grade 321 stainless in a 4 inch diameter but a lighter weight 20 gauge but that's almost twice as expensive. Since this is for the pipe
AFTER the header it most likely won't be exposed to the heat extremes a header primary tube would see so I'd say the 304 (which I gather polishes up really nicely) would be the more rational choice.
Then again, a nice 4 inch diameter 304 stainless exhaust stack for a truck that you could pick up at a local full service truck stop or over-the-road truck dealer
might be a bit less costly. Poking around a little on the internet I saw some with straight ends that were as tall as 96" which would be exactly the 8 feet you'd need. Check around with the places that service large trucks in your area for prices.
One nice thing about using an 8 foot long, 4 inch diameter pipe. That's large enough to slip in a Cherry Bomb style glasspack muffler (or two ... or even
three ) if the darn thing winds up being so darn noisy the police in the next town over get called every time you fire it up.
Frankly, I'd be willing to bet it's gonna be really,
really loud as a straight pipe
. I'm not really sure how you'd fix a muffler inside so it wouldn't just slide back out, but I'm pretty sure a resourceful guy like you who had access to a welder and some cutting tools could find a way to manage.
Oh, and here's one final thought. If there's a big truck salvage yard near you anywhere you might be able to work a deal on a used stack pulled off a big rig. It'd likely have some scratches and dings and dents and "patina", but then again that might just make it all the more appealing to you depending on the "look" you're going for with this thing.