ISL33P

the best way to do it....get as much scrap as you can and be prepared to go through a few bottles of welding gas

You can buy those cheap chinese ones off ebay...just get one with a money back guarantee on purchase, because I bought one a couple of years ago and it blew up as soon as I plugged it in. The guy happily sent me my money back. Apart from that, it doesn't really matter what machine you buy, you can pretty much get the same result from any machine....you just have to get used to it and accustom yourself with how it welds and its possible settings. The same settings on different brand machines can produce very different results. That's the hardest part about it all, because there is so much difference in them it is hard to provide a specific setup for each and every machine. Just a word or warning, all the functionality in the world can't beat practice and therefore experience with different jobs. Cheers, Ariel

sounds like you are ringing the wrong people. just buy individual bends and all you need is 2 welds. custom made mandrel bent pipes cost a fortune and very very few people would make use of them jnt performance.com.au or 02 4257 1000

There is no real reason to do it with aluminium because there are plenty of options for tight radius stuff....so this is where it comes in for the stainless and titanium because they dont have the same options

thanks Dallas. I will post up some pics of the few things I am doing for your car in the coming weeks. Nothing major from a manufacturing point of view, just some welding practice really

My aluminium supplier gets majority of his stuff in 1.6mm thickness. For aluminium, basically, filler and tungsten size should be the same tickness of the material you are welding, give or take. As for stainless, you can always going a little smaller in those items compared to material thickness. Best guide is to buy one of those millers welding charts which tell you exactly what you are after...they are a good start and if you are not within those parameters, you may be doing something wrong. No real need to purge pipes if the welding procedure is right. Try to get the pipe joins as close to absolute perfect as possible and there will be no need for filler.

Here are some pics of the rb26 plenum flange I done this morning. What it started off being a peice of flat bar and then to what it became. Just for those with a keen eye for detail, the last pic just shows the flange sittings on there, not lined up, because you will notice the holes are out by a bit which is not the case when it is screwed down Cheers, Ariel

the lower half of the first weld in the last pic seems to have the right amount of heat and filler rod. this stuff is a lot easier with stainless, but even then i would prefer to use something a bit thinner like 1.6mm in either s/s or alu. The best thing about stainless is that you only need to fuse it and therefore no filler which you can learn your tig control at the same time and not have to worry about filler.....and yes, always pulse thin stuff, esepcially stainless. I wish I had some pics of stainless piping I did for a customers gtr (see my thread for some bits 'n pieces) they turned out quite well for it being one of the few stainless jobs I have ever done.

ps - hand made flange for rb26 plenum has been completed this morning and that should do for the day since I am just waiting on an electrician to come past to do some work on my place which will occupy me for the rest of the arvo. progress pics of the plenum will be posted when there is something a little more exciting than some flat bar with some pretty patterns and holes

anyway back to my welding abs cover and air box for r33 gtr.....sorry for the pic size but I couldnt be bothered resizing them this job also involved, modified stainless intercooler piping on both hot and cold sides, welding speedflow fittings to existing catch can, mount power steering reservior bottle, secure aftermarket jap radiator and more....I know I could have bent the abs cover and airbox and therefore required less welding, but I like this look better and so did the customer, so that's what counts

Hopefully by the weekend I will have some pics of a plenum for a r32 gtr for a customer in Canada ....and I forgot the pics of the rb25 but I have another two on order so I will get some of those two.

i can guarantee it wasnt a nc or cnc machine.....disgraceful for a performance magazine, but i suppose when you get paid to put an article by a workshop, of course you are going to spin bs

i paid $1500 for mine and its a brand new lincoln welder, but i did also pay some $3k in getting 3 phase connected at my place. i have welded exhausts and intercooler piping in aluminium, stainless, mild steel and the odd bits of chromoly as for some of the work out there.....i should start making a bit of a gallery, some of the crap out there is unbelievable....read: horrible!!!!!!! how these people get paid i wonder...actually, maybe they dont and thats why people use them....i would certainly prefer to pay to get a job done right. PS - stay tuned for up and coming r32 products currently being planned....abs unit cover, catch cans, overflow bottle, coolant bottles mmmmmm

thanks for that....I wish I could have more practice to improve You are 100% right about aluminium needing to be very clean. Having said that, as you can see from the photo of do plenty of welding to factory cast manifolds and with the amount of crap (oil, fuel etc) on the inside they still come up ok. As long as the outside is cleaned up well, there should be no reason to penetrate it enough for the impurities to come through completely. As for the the comments on other peoples fabrication, I totally agree, it happens a lot in magazines. A so called "go before show" magazine made similar comments some very crappy fabrication on a 7 sec drag car....it was almost shameful and not something I would ever put my name too...they also had a photo of some lathe in a workshop and claimed it to be a cnc machine but all it really was was the digital read out, nothing more, nothing less

I have some pics of a r33 rb26 plenum coming up for a Canadian customer along with a newly designed rb25 plenum....just getting everything sorted out for them now and I will post pics as I go along. I should also post pics of my GTR ABS cover (which will be available for sale) along with the airbox for a r33 gtr I done recently.

good to hear it works. .....and I was one of them

pm sent

Guaranteed this filter is not moving anywhere. It got this filter one day after is being ordered. K&N have huge local stocks. The jap stuff, I think, is a waste of time and not worth the price tag. The only mod required is a stanley knife to remove the rim to ensure the secure fitment. Not really a mod, just a 2-3 minute snip. Bellmouth design can be varied but limited to turbo placement and each of them is different depending on the turbos being used, hence the "one-off". This is more of a custom unit because I am modifying the inlet pipes to suit with only 4 holes for the mounts and the single inlet hole required to be cut. Making them as a unit to sell ready to install is the idea, but this one itself is a bit of a one-off considering all the other mods to the car and the customers requests.

thanks. it actually uses a modified motorbike air filter. readily available and easy to modify if a replacement is required.

that he doesnt have. its a custom stainless job.

he had the apexi pod adaptors on it, but they are gone now. different piping should be done by tomorrow or friday along with the list of everything else he wants done.

something like this to suit a twin turbo setup. ready for engineers certificate with something as little special inside. fully sealed with k&n flat panel air filter inside above the 4" intake. abs cover along with fuse box cover coming also. edit - hose clamp on bottom of airbox is for display only, will have a silicon hose with clamps.

just bring it down and I will fix it up. I should post some pics of a r33 gtr airbox and some other bits n pieces I am doing.....mmmm nice

looks like someone has chopped mine up, but that was originally one for a na sr20

nice job...did you end up finsihing your engine with one of these heads?