Disappointing Fabrication Session

[flintknapper]

Me neither!

As someone else mentioned, it is a skid plate - no one is gonna see it!
Seattle

If Mark is a semi-perfectionist (like me) then there is no way in Hell that anything HE built (that was not correct) is going to find its way onto his vehicle.

Yeah, no one would see it.....and structurally its uncompromised.....but, damnit its just not RIGHT!

I wouldn't have put it on there either. (Maybe there is help for people like us).

 

[turbocruiser]

Guys, thanks again for all the advice and all the support, just one thing to clarify though (just jumped back on mud after about eight hours away) ... I'm not Mark, although I'm sure he can be just as perfectionistic about his stuff as I am on mine, anyways, just wanted to clarify that. Its Shaun, aka TurboCruiser!!!

 

[mabrodis]

Mark, can you clarify something for me, this is with 3" tubing? If so, I'd really love to see some pics! I just can't see how 3" tubing would be any more than about a quarter inch from both the floor at the top and the frame at the bottom.

No, this was not with 3" tubing, infact it was 2-1/4" I'm pretty sure, that makes a big difference.

I took some pictures of it awhile ago (don't have the vehicle anymore), but haven't been able to dig them up, it wasn't perfect, but it was a good start I thought.

Even with 2-1/4" tubing it was pretty close to the cat heat-shields (smashed them up against the floor for more clearance). The shop did it more of a corkscrew style, so after the one cat it twisted towards the frame and back, once over the frame it was more-or-less a straight run back to the muffler (stock-ish location but a rectangular turbo one).

I think a better way would be to have a tight turn over the frame, possibly turning the exhaust perpendicular right there, so it's pointing at the frame then hop over the frame in a tight bend (like a pre-bent piece you could play with), hugging the frame very close, then once on the other side of the frame you are mostly home free. I thought it would probably be better to solidify the exhaust with rigid mounts then put a stainless steel flex braided flex dohickie right before (or after) the cat, so as the engine torqued it'd still have some flex, but the actual exhaust further back would be fixed, having the exhaust that close to the frame/body just doesn't work well when the engine needs to torque, would be better if it was rigid back there and a specific flexpoint up towards the engine somewhere.

My thinking about this might be off some, I don't have an 80 to look at right now, so it's all from memory.

Good Luck!
Mark Brodis

 

[turbocruiser]

No, this was not with 3" tubing, infact it was 2-1/4" I'm pretty sure, that makes a big difference.

Even with 2-1/4" tubing it was pretty close to the cat heat-shields (smashed them up against the floor for more clearance). The shop did it more of a corkscrew style, so after the one cat it twisted towards the frame and back, once over the frame it was more-or-less a straight run back to the muffler (stock-ish location but a rectangular turbo one).

I think a better way would be to have a tight turn over the frame, possibly turning the exhaust perpendicular right there, so it's pointing at the frame then hop over the frame in a tight bend (like a pre-bent piece you could play with), hugging the frame very close, then once on the other side of the frame you are mostly home free. I thought it would probably be better to solidify the exhaust with rigid mounts then put a stainless steel flex braided flex dohickie right before (or after) the cat, so as the engine torqued it'd still have some flex, but the actual exhaust further back would be fixed, having the exhaust that close to the frame/body just doesn't work well when the engine needs to torque, would be better if it was rigid back there and a specific flexpoint up towards the engine somewhere.

My thinking about this might be off some, I don't have an 80 to look at right now, so it's all from memory.

Good Luck!
Mark Brodis

Mark, thanks man, whew, I was worrying that there was an extra easy way that I missed, I'm glad you clarified that. I know this is turning away from the first thread but there are several specific factors that add up to one helluva hard exhaust to fabricate over frame. The first thing is everything from my turbo back is 3" diameter, it is all mandrel bent so no cheating with the crumple areas common to regularly bent tubing, and it is all shot as straight as possible by design so having sharp turns possibly defeats purpose of 3" mandrel bent exhaust. The second thing is that i have sliders. The third thing is that i apparently live in an area where shops are scrutinized - everything from body shops to exhaust shops to repair shops are always looking out for violations to code, which i guess they should be, its just that i've never seen such fearfullness or perhaps its mindfullness regarding inspectors.

( On a side note and as another example, today i called a tint place and asked about the cost to do the 80 - the guy refused to tell me and then beat around the bush twenty agonizing times until he finally spit out that "he would have to meet me to estimate that" and then thirty stumbling sentances later managed to mutter "its actually illegal to tint over factory tinted windows, all i can LEEEGALLY do for your vehicle is the front two non-tinted windows" I was amazed, i guess the gestapo is out in force, too bad every taco establishment in town gives me the sh+ts!)


Now getting back to the first thing - I'm good at fabricating almost anything and thanks to the first ROTW participant I started working up the courage to start touching the 80 for fabrication things. As I am a little leary of buying mandrel bend sections at between 60 and 90 dollars EACH, and cutting and splicing and mitering sections together to go over the frame, I thought spending about 15 bucks ( 25 with custom ubolts ) to fabricate a custom skid plate to protect just the part of the pipe that crosses under was the way to go. There are disadvantages of course (like loosing four inches of clearance right there) and there are advantages (like possible fire safety). But short of wasting a ton of money and ton of time doing the mandrel madness myself, at the possible expense of fire safety, I thought I'd fab this skid thing up and go smack it around some!!! Actually, I'm only going to do that long enough to stealth my way to the reffug compound and unbolt that purdy authentic Safari exhaust!!! Hey dont worry bud, I'll at least wash and wax the rest of the truck for you while I'm at it!

 

[mabrodis]

I agree, it could get rather expensive to fab up the whole exhaust yourself. I was just looking through a old ChassisShop (www.chassisshop.com) catalog from 2003, they have some premade sections of mild steel and stainless, not overly cheap though...a 3" OD "U"-piece with a 6" radius was ~$22, not bad if you could handle the 6" radius, you could also get stainless in a 3" OD in a donut with a 3" radius, for more like $45 or something like that. Cool looking pieces, specifically for headers/exhaust, but it could certainly be $$$$ to piece it all together...then screwup on the welding... One nice thing is any muffler shop could flare some pieces so it'd be a slip-fit system, which would be great for a mockup, rather than tack welding it all to see how it would fit. Still would be a pain however...

Good Luck...
Mark Brodis

 

[tiorio]

Don't negate the melting/burning carpet thing boys. My carpet melted on last years E. Sierra's run. Temps in 90s, crawling over shale off-camber. At the campsite found my cooler bottom melted to my carpet. This is a Coleman cooler, not some no-brand (not that it makes much of a difference here).

It CAN happen. And, I don't have forced-induction (yet)...

 

[Rainy Day FZJ]

Go take a look at Summit Racing or Jegs.com for some pre-bent sections of exhaust, I was amazed at the good price ( in my opinion ) I figured that I could the full exhaust in 3" very easiely with the rotation of the cats for $ 250 parts only naturally...

 

[clownmidget]

You can route 3-inch exhaust over the frame rail easily but most folks are VERY leary of the method - a one to three inch body lift. Just my opinion but a one inch body lift gives you enough room to do it and since it is a series of complex bends (3D) it is much easier to buy pre-mandrel bent pieces and chop saw and weld them to get you from the catalytic coverter to the muffler. I don't think Slee's or Hanna's sliders come into play unless you are really diverging from the factory route, either 93-95 or 95-97.

Good luck on the skid plate - it seems like several folks would be interested in the design and some test results.

Mike R

 

[turbocruiser]

Update!

Well folks, I went at it again and created another skid plate worthy of some pride, I snapped some shots on one of those old fashioned film cameras ( ) so when I get them developed and downloaded, I'll post some pics, like in a week or so ( again, ). I'm happy to report that everything fits so well, I cannot physically measure any inaccuracy anywhere! Now I'm happy. Thanks again, ohh, just noticed that this thread was magically moved from chat to tech, I'm honored; that's a first!

 

[turbocruiser]

Some Snap Shots

Hi all, as promised, here are some snap shots of the exhaust skid plate i made to protect the part of the exhaust that crosses under the frame. Some noteworthy notes:

1. It is impossible to tell through the photos but basically the lowest length of the pipe is protected by the structure of the skid plate; the photo makes the length of the pipe look surprisingly level but in reality the length of the pipe "U shapes" pretty aggressively. Since so much of the left leg of the U is transitioning both upward and forward at the same time, it is hard to tell that the pipe rapidly gets up and away therefore no need, at least so far, to make the lowest platform of the plate much wider. If I find through purposely placing the skid to smash the ground that any part of the pipe is not protected, then I will simply make a wider custom cut platform and bolt or weld it to the skid plate structure.

2. The flat stock is all 1/4 inch thick steel.

3. The rectangular stock is 1"x2" 1/8 inch thick wall tubing.

4. The bolts are 7/16th custom cut bolts 3 inches wide by 7 inches long.

5. First I measured and cut all the pieces and then cut-scored center-lines on length and width of every piece Then everything's totally cleaned using special prep solvent. A random orbit sanding with 40 grit gives good bite for welding as well as priming and painting. Everything was MIG welded with emphasis on even penetration and pure non porous welds. Then everything was sanded again, primed with Eastwood primer, and after some road and offroad use, will get cleaned up and painted with Eastwood chassis semi-black (60% gloss) which will match perfectly the powdercoating on the Slee TC Skidplate.

6. Its hard to tell from the photo but basically along with the super stout ubolts, the skid is held in place by the rail-to-rail crossmember in the front and by one of the Slee Step Slider brackets in back. Even if I smacked something straight on at a relatively rapid rate of speed either in forward or reverse, the thing can only move 1/4 inch in front and 1/2 inch in back. If it does do this, it will not smack anything else in the process although I cannot imagine the force required to budge the thing. It easily supports the weight of the rig.

Anyways, just my way of working around the problems I had with having a pro exhaust shop go from my cat, over my frame, then to my MAF / Safari Turbo System exhaust. Hope yall likey!!!

 

[turbocruiser]

Another angle ...

 

[turbocruiser]

And another angle, ...

 

[turbocruiser]

Oops, forgot to edit the thread title!

7. (continued) Also forgot to mention that the way that the plate was designed, it is extremely easy to remove without removing anything else, also, that the sliders can still come off without removing anything else, same with the TransferCase skid plate, and same even with the exhaust (notice the flanged section). So its all bolt on/bolt off, nothing rubs anything else, and allows access to anything at all that I need to work on.

8. Also forgot to mention that although this was measured and made to fit with everything on my rig, it would probably fit on rigs with stock exhaust systems. If anyone wants to measure where their pipe passes under the floor in relation to the rear of the rail-to-rail crossmember, I can let you know if the same size skid plate would work well. If not, I can simply calculate the different lengths and/or angles that would make it work.

 

[alia176]

Very nice job dude.

Ali

 

[reffug]

Enjoying the new digi I see.

Well done Turbo excellent write up and nice fab work.

 

[turbocruiser]

Very nice job dude.

Ali

Enjoying the new digi I see.

Well done Turbo excellent write up and nice fab work.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it, hopefully the next pic will be with boulders being safely skidded over by that thar skid plate!!!