Knowing my 18ga mild steel manifolds won't hold for too much longer, I decided to start making some of the parts to ease fabrication later.

I'm starting out by making collectors from scratch. So far, I have not found a company that sells collectors made of thick gauge stainless. By thick I mean something like .100" to hold up to the heat. The only place that I found sells decent collectors is Burns Stainless. Only problem is most of there collectors are pretty long, and cost about $300 each

So, here's my solution. 11ga 304 stainless tubing. Cut angles to make 4.5" long collectors. I'm only half way done. I still need to angle cut and weld the two together.

The only thing I wish I did differently was purge the inside of the pipes out with argon. You can see in the pics that the inside look like crap. Purging would have given a much smoother feel. Now I have to spend hours with a grinder to smooth things out. Beginner welder

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Looks good. Nothing wrong with your welding.

I like it when guys booty-fab there own stuff to save cash and it comes out looking better than the stuff they were looking at buying! :yeah:

Toughguy

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1982 GSL, Orange Crush
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Is your seatbelt on? I`m gonna try something!

Purging the tubes would have made it stronger & all but but ever looked at some of the ones for sell? Most are way worse,thin & like you said way to much. I likes good work!!

thanks guys!!

Here is the finished collector. I still need to smooth the insides out, but this is a good start. The merge angle looks way less than 15 degrees which means this collector will flow

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