Header Fabrication

SlantedDart said
Built plenty of headers.. I’ll charge double on a mopar lol. Either way you’ll have to hammer form to start. The 90* edge of a table works well. Just have your rotation right before you square the tube.. after use a hammer and a punch on the inside to seal the rest to the flange so it’s an easy weld. Weld both outside and inside. Mildly port inside to make smooth/ belt sand flange flat(important). Other option is to put them on a mill (cnc) program a .125 step into the flange that’s round! Blend back the inside with a carbide bit. I don’t use a gasket on mine just high temp rtv. Flange HAS to be flat though. 318 port on the pics. Much harder than a 440 portView attachment 1715811600 View attachment 1715811601 View attachment 1715811602 View attachment 1715811603

These are great tips! Your headers look awesome!!! For these logs, I just ended up using my bench vise to squeeze the tube one way, and a big pair of vise grip clamps to square it up the other way. Then a big punch and hammer to make adjustments. It turned out working pretty well.

Since I wasn't sure whether to weld the inside or the outside, I did both just to be safe., then ran a flat file over it to ensure the flange was perfectly flat. I just wish I had a good friend who was a good tig welder. Hopefully everything seals.

Lastly - don't ever buy j-bends from Hooker. I couldn't believe how rusty these were on the inside.