Thread: Everybody that is currently building a car...

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Yrs ago I read a article in Hot Rod that said Don Hardy was designing a swap kit to put in a V6 4.3 into a Chevette.Got me to buy a Busch Grand National 4.3 from Hendrick(sp) at the Drag Racer's auction in Indy when NASCAR ended that program and a rust free Chevette.So once I bought all that,I called Don Hardy's shop to buy the mounts and headers to be told yeah they never finished the kit and just pushed the car out back because it was too hard to mass produce.That Hot Rod jumped the gun on it and drew in the headers and a bunch of other stuff even through they told Hot Rod not to do that.So the shop foreman and me got into a long conversation about the headers they tried to build.He told me the only way to build them for that car was with all slip joints.So it left me with a bunch of money invested and needing to build my own headers.

I don't remember where I got the "U" bends and flanges and pipes,but I think it was from Jegs.Again I don't remember where I got this tip/trick which I thought at that time was pretty slick.If you measure the outside of the pipe,you not truly measuring it's equal length.Because that is more the I.D. of the pipe(s).So the tip/trick is to take fishing bob's that are about the same size as the I.D. of the pipes and drop those into the pipes at 3" spacing on fishing line and measure the length of the line that way getting the true equal length of each pipe.
I do remember I had hrs and hrs invested into those headers tacking and adjusting those.You know how you get involved in a project and lose a sense of time you have been at something??.Well I was tacking by looking away for I guess it was 12 hrs or so.Yepper it was the one time I did a very good job burning my eyes ending up wearing patches on them for 24 hrs.But much younger and in part a learning curve.

Anywho-the tip/trick is use fishing bob's on fish line to measure the I.D.for true equal length pipes.So some might seem foolish,but it did seem to work on this car.

Originally Posted by 1gary

Yrs ago I read a article in Hot Rod that said Don Hardy was designing a swap kit to put in a V6 4.3 into a Chevette.Got me to buy a Busch Grand National 4.3 from Hendrick(sp) at the Drag Racer's auction in Indy when NASCAR ended that program and a rust free Chevette.So once I bought all that,I called Don Hardy's shop to buy the mounts and headers to be told yeah they never finished the kit and just pushed the car out back because it was too hard to mass produce.That Hot Rod jumped the gun on it and drew in the headers and a bunch of other stuff even through they told Hot Rod not to do that.So the shop foreman and me got into a long conversation about the headers they tried to build.He told me the only way to build them for that car was with all slip joints.So it left me with a bunch of money invested and needing to build my own headers.

I don't remember where I got the "U" bends and flanges and pipes,but I think it was from Jegs.Again I don't remember where I got this tip/trick which I thought at that time was pretty slick.If you measure the outside of the pipe,you not truly measuring it's equal length.Because that is more the I.D. of the pipe(s).So the tip/trick is to take fishing bob's that are about the same size as the I.D. of the pipes and drop those into the pipes at 3" spacing on fishing line and measure the length of the line that way getting the true equal length of each pipe.
I do remember I had hrs and hrs invested into those headers tacking and adjusting those.You know how you get involved in a project and lose a sense of time you have been at something??.Well I was tacking by looking away for I guess it was 12 hrs or so.Yepper it was the one time I did a very good job burning my eyes ending up wearing patches on them for 24 hrs.But much younger and in part a learning curve.

Anywho-the tip/trick is use fishing bob's on fish line to measure the I.D.for true equal length pipes.So some might seem foolish,but it did seem to work on this car.

Great tip Gary! I used a big sea rope (like they use for barges). Bobs would be easier to get in the hole and past the bends.

David