Reply to "3785 Gets a 400 swap, fabbed 180's and fabbed mufflers"

I started building the form for the end caps out of a 1X6 piece of Maple. I cut two pieces and glued them together in the press using Gorilla brand hard wood glue.



I cut out the shape and used a ½ radius bit in the router to make rounded edges. This gives it the same curve as a 1inch diameter circle.





I made a 1/4 inch thick steel plate to act as a retainer for the ends while forming them.



Next was to try a experiment to see if I could flare the holes for the opening and exits in the ends. I bead rolled some circles in a piece of scrap and hole sawed one of them and it fit the tube perfectly and had the effect I wanted.



I cut out the four pieces that were to be the ends and bead rolled the appropriate circles in them.



I cut the reliefs into them and tapped them over with a small hammer. Then I bolted the form plate to the backside.







The top and bottom halves were clamped together and the end tapped in backwards from the top for welding up the relief cuts. This insured it would have a nice fit after welding.



Here are the ends after welding and grinding.



I built a fixture to hold the ends square and then screwed on the tops and bottoms.