Apologies if you've had a gutful off this bloody exhaust malarkey, I can't blame you, I was kinda feeling the same at this point. But another 3 weeks away at work paying for the tax-man's Hawaiian conference/holiday gave me enough of a breather to take a fresh(-ish) look when I got home.
We had "proof of concept" that I could make a half decent exhaust, but I needed to sort a couple of things that were grating on me in relation to the tail pipe. Specifically, the TIG'd bend heading up to the muffler just looked awkward against the similarly tight bend from the vertical cylinder coming down, marked below:
I needed to make the adjacent bends look concentric, with a larger radius rear bend wrapping around the front bend.
If you remember the Plan A Mkl exhaust was satin finish 63.5mm 1.2mm WT tube? Vs the Mkll tube being (initially) polished? This is significant = different suppliers. Initially I couldn't find any 1.2mm WT tube so had to use EvilBay and an overseas supplier. Come Mkll time I'd found a business in the Eastern States (Queensland) = cheaper, faster and great customer service:
So they were the first place I looked for a suitable mandrel bend. Low and behold they offer mandrel bends in a selection of materials, radius, degrees of bend, wall thickness including 1.2mm. Soon enough a couple of 180deg J-bends were on their way. 2 bends? Hey, this is me we're talking about, so I'd rather be looking at it than for it when it comes to needing a lil' extra.
In the mean time I tidied up a couple of other bits and bobs:
1. I had the painting gear out so I sneezed some flat black onto the “tank”, more out of curiosity than any great expectations, but it's not quite as bad as I'd feared:
2. I properly mounted the RS tail/seat which had just been sat there previously and “upholstered” the seat with closed cell neoprene, the scary investment of $13AUD buying enough to cover two seats. I shouldn’t admit I spent more on the recommended latex based foam adhesive than I did on foam, but the stuff is the dogs bollocks and money well spent:
Eventually I got to install the mandrel bend and while I was at it I replaced the tight bend into the silencer with another section of flow-friendly mandrel bend. It's a subtle difference but the bends just sit a little better against each other. There are a couple of manky spots and some slight adjustments I might make but realistically they are low priority and this'll get me up and running:
For the love of God can someone please sack the photographer?! If it's not the wonky angle above looking like 16" front's are back in vogue it's the distorted looking tubes below, they actually are still round.....honest.
Just trying show that for a big system I've managed to keep it fairly well tucked in:
The Leo Vince on the 749R requires 15mm standoffs for the RH rearset, and an exhaust heat shield:
I'm not sure I'll need the heat shield to avoid the smell of medium-rare leg permeating the paddock and I've only needed 6mm standoffs to give plenty of room for the rearset heel guards.
