build diary

July 13, 2004: After a lot of running around, I've determined that there aren't any real mandrel benders in town.
After a long talk with a local petrolhead and muffler shop wizard, I've decided to simply use "normal" pipe bends in the first round of my header. It'll be inexpensive, easy and will let me get the car running. Besides, I'm using quite large 1.75" tube for the header instead of the more usual 1.5". Even with the lower quality bends, the tube will never go below 1.5" diameter. Once I'm satisfied, I can cut and weld my own runners out of mandrel U bends.

To this end and following advice given to me, I spent last night carefully bending welding rod into the shapes I need. I have a lot of room to work with and it's a good thing - this is harder than it looks! The bent-up rods were dropped off at the muffler shop this morning and I'll be able to test-fit them tonight. A couple of my bends were too tight for their bender but I do have a few chunks of mandrel U in that radius so I'll just stitch that together.

In other news, I ordered my mirrors last night. I had been looking at the same mirrors we used on the Flyin' Miata "Track Dog" race car but the $80 price tag for a pair had me hesitating. A bit of looking around and I found some motorcycle mirrors that are similar in design for $25 a pair. So they're not quite as easily adjusted. I can deal with that! I was also informed that there's a track day that would be perfect for testing and setup on the 24th. Will I be able to make it? Hard to say. It's a long drive and I'd hate to discover a major problem when I got there. But it honestly would be possible if I wanted to do it...

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