I continued on with dialing in the right side exhaust pipe cardboard mockup brackets after having moved the exhaust pipes as far inboard as they could physically move… again, about 1/8″ from where they were.  Is this worth all the trouble?  I’m not sure, but I did/do want these pipes as balanced and symmetrical as possible with the the left side pipes (the right side still about 1/2″ further outboard than the left side).

I will say that it’s pretty much starting out from square 0 when I rewicker any position on any part of these brackets.  I would equate it to being on a 6-way seesaw with different sized kids and trying to get them all to stop and balance at the same height.  Because of the slight variance in pipe heights, matching the sloping angle of the aft baffle, and of course the angles of the pipes themselves, even knocking off an offending 0.015″ high x 1/4″ wide “bump” on the inboard pipe side of the bracket can shift the configuration to then cause a significant, say 0.030″, gap where none existed previously around the outboard pipe.  At times it really seems like a lesson in futility!

Thus the myriad of iterative cycles to dial in these brackets.  Or I am really just that bad at all this?! haha

With my cardboard templates dialed in to a good point, I scanned them into Fusion 360, created a third version model of these right side brackets, and then plasma cut them out of scrap steel.

I had an issue with my top right exhaust pipe bracket in CAD from me scanning in the cardboard bracket where it was showing up as a mirror image of my bracket (a lesson learned now), and only allowing me to cut it that way.  For test-fitting purposes I pressed forward and plasma cut this reverse 2D model, but then wasted a good hour fixing the mirror image issue for when I cut it in 316 stainless steel.

Regardless, here’s the result BEFORE I removed any dross, but AFTER I knocked the majority of rust off the surfaces (a major point here being that my plasma cutting table feeds-and-speeds are proving to be very good).

As crazy as it sounds, I then spent over 3 hours very slowly dialing in the top and bottom right side exhaust pipe brackets.  Here we have the top bracket.  From the center moving outboard the bracket needs very minor tweaks.  However, the left inboard side of this bracket needs to get shifted outboard about 0.025″, so I will transfer this to cardboard, finalize configuration, rescan, remodel, recut and confirm tomorrow.

And here we have the bottom bracket.  From these angles it looks pretty good, but there are unacceptable gaps between the pipe sleeves and bracket circular cutouts, both on the outboard sides.  This makes sense due the fact that the bracket was tacking inboard when I was first test-fitting it… again, way too easy to overshoot (per all the angles, etc. mentioned above) as material is removed to make the bracket fit into place.

Am I getting burnt out on dealing with these darn brackets?  Yes, somewhat.  But the good news is that I am clearly close to having the right set of exhaust pipe brackets dialed in and ready to be welded and mounted.  Moreover, in full disclosure I should note that I spent nearly 3 hours watching videos and re-reading my notes to reacquaint myself with both my TIG welder and the TIG welding process… all in prep, as it’s been a good while since I’ve done any welding!