Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Exhaust is finalised, on with the wiring..oh and a little bit more on the rear brakes.

I'm lucky enough to have some skilled welders on hand for advice where I work...... This has really helped with the final exhaust system. My original plan was to simply hand car over to an expert and let them sort the exhaust system, but, once again, my bank balance got the better of me and a few quotes of 1k plus put me off the whole idea.

The system is now finished...lots of measuring, cutting, welding followed by purchasing the next section bend. I'm pleased with the end result (of course the proof is in the pudding and I'll not really know what it's like until I fire the engine up).

I purchased the base silencer first, this came open ended with no bends - It's stainless (as is the whole system), 6 inch wide and around 20 inches long - this should be plenty for IVA and 100db Track days.

First job was to weld on some mounts and get the silencer located. The rest was just figuring out how to get the outlet of the manifold through the silencer and back out the rear of the car....it's a fairly convoluted system, but the constraints of the J15 space meant it had to be like this...plus I'm going for a forward hinging rear clam.


The build:

  • Mounting lugs welded on, and chassis mounts needed two brackets to allow the rubber mounts to be inset to fit the silencer.

  • Two of the bends welded in:


  • The most convoluted of the bends was the bottom bend that needed two angles to get it to point in the right direction:


  • Almost finished system with the cat in situe, the link pipe on the left and side was changed for a welded on connection that only need one clamp (see the finished  pic):



  • Anyway, here it is the finished article (note: the cat slots into the space where the lower link pipe is located):


Back to the rear brakes.....As I saved some hard earned cash on the exhaust, I scummed to a set of rear hispecs with the IVA rear handbrake mechanism built in (in blue of course), they conveniently do a vw lug mount calliper, which is very lights and should fit straight on....they've been ordered and I hope to get them in a few weeks. I just wasn't overly happy with the VW callipers being so close to the 13inch wheels (although they did go in). Will post some pics when they arrive.