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No longer a neatly trimmed hole -- exhaust help


jakeandlizzy

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My exhaust mangled a bit of the skin on the car. I think I backed into something or something else caused it at the drift what ya brung day.

 

In any case, my options are to make the hole much bigger or to cover it with something. For the latter, does anyone have any suggestions?

 

This is what I am talking about: here

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Not too much of a problem. Make a 10mm wide surround of 12G ali sheet as someone has already indicated. The shape can be got from impressing a sheet of stiff brown wrapping paper in two halves to the top and bottom of the hole thro which the exhaust exits. That gives the inside curve. Transfer that to ali sheet with the outer radius of plus 10mm all round. Trim and file/polish to finish. It works - i've just done one.
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Thought about it, but it may be even more chavvy! I put on some carbon wings the other day (thanks Geoff), but I think I may go back to something with colour like green carbon/kevlar wings instead of pure carbon fibre. But I will see if the new wings grow on me or not first.

 

But I do have about 6.5 square metres of reasonably thick carbon fibre sheets (about 1.5-2mm) I do not know what to do with at the moment, so I could use some of that up for this purpose! The resin will degrade pretty quickly with the heat of the exhaust I would think.

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good point...will check it out this weekend -- may need to zip tie it up for snetterton on Monday! 😳

 

After monday, it is being stripped apart to de-winter it...that is make it look nice, so exhaust polishing (and probably re-welding), carbon dash, carbon floors, carbon firewall panels, powdercoating, mount slicks on new wheels, new leather for tunnel top, refresh the diff clutch plates (maybe), etc. etc.

 

... so it will be motorcycle only for a few weeks it looks like! 😬

 

quote: "the way you drive" -- you should see me on the bike after watching a motoGP race *evil* ..but I get your point, not much mechanical sympathy from me--maybe when I get older that will sink in.

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But I do have about 6.5 square metres of reasonably thick carbon fibre sheets (about 1.5-2mm) I do not know what to do with at the moment

 

Darn, I wish I'd know about this a week ago as we could've both ended up better off!

 

Is it prepreg or wetlay?

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It is definitely not wetlay where resin is applied to layers and left to dry (and you typically end up with one side flat/gloss and the other side textured). This has been compressed and one side is super glossy and flat and the other side is flat with the weave, but not quite as glossy for some reason. All sheets are about 1m by 30 cm or so--I have about a dozen, which individually are pretty light, but you put that many together and it is pretty heavy! The edges have not been cut yet on some where the edge of the molds disturbed the resin though. Not an issue, but if you are looking for flat, structural pieces that also look pretty good, then these will work I think. For example, the firewalls of the car, a few cut up pieces for the boot floor, or for brackets other bits.

 

I will likely use what I can and then cut them up into smaller bits and ebay them as sheets go for pretty good money there for some reason--odd, because even pre-preg autoclave produced sheets really aren't that expensive to make (but I suppose you need the kit). All part of the UK scam carbon fibre market *tongue*, but it is pretty in a geeky way.

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  • 3 months later...

Resurecting this only to say that the guys at PowerSpeed are pretty friendly. They took my old 4-2-1 catherham exhasut, made it fit together nicely and put on a factory 'second' pipe (looks perfect to me!!). I also had them cut off those stupid 'tabs' that always break. To avoid future problems, they put two mounts on the can as well. Service was great: I sent the exhaust off last Thursday evening and I received it back complete on the following Tuesday!

 

Old exhaust where it fouled:

 

here

 

and new (to me):

here

 

 

So the whole deal cost far less than half the price of a new system and the results I think are decent.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by - jakeandlizzy on 13 Jul 2011 14:50:14

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driving skills -- backed into a block of concrete on a country road. It bend the old muffler considerably so I assume that is what pushed it forward.

 

Could not be anything else -- engine mounts are all fine. That is, I cannot rock the motor at all unless I loosen the engine mounting bolts.

 

I should also note that after cutting away the mangled bit, I used a rubber surround to make the hole look even better. It is the same rubber that is used for cycle wings I think. In any case, the rubber nearly touches in some places, but the rubber does not seems to be affected by the heat (just for reference in case someone ever considers doing the same).

 

 

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