Tips for fabricating charge piping

79powerwagon

79powerwagon

New member
Im going to be changing the intercooler setup in my 79 and was wondering if anyone had some tips for fabricating charge piping from mild steel. Using a Small miller mig. Have a couple sets of 2nd gen piping to work with.

Now ive done exhaust systems and rigged up some charge piping but it wasnt necassarily pretty. Id like this set to be presentable.

I will likely be making a few pie cuts. Is there a better way to join these pieces than just butting them up? Better to use a 3” od piece to slip inside piping? Man up and buy some mandrel bent stuff?
 
man up and buy some mandrel bent pieces. pie cuts are extremely hard to make look presentable for the average Joe in his garage. vrs buying $100 worth of perfects bends and simply cutting straight and welding seams.
 
With a mig pie cuts tend to look like chit. Not to mention you are opening yourself up for sugaring the inside and getting slag into your intake ten fold when you create such a large amount of butt joints to weld.
 
go no more course than 80 grit flap wheels; prep, prep, and when you think you've prepped, do it again. I like the 3" roloc version on a right angle air grinder/tool/whatever. I like flappers because they have a softer feel and are easier to control when sanding tubes.

make sure your cuts are square, and the tubes match each other.

use 0.024" wire, and if your machine has auto-set, use it. if not, test your settings on scrap pieces. much better to take some time to prep some scrap and test the welder than to have to scrap a full-sized piece that you've already fit up (and probably don't have extra pieces to duplicate)
 
I will never mig another set of pie cuts.
Spent forever getting a perfect fit up, only to have them look like dog chit in the end.
Tig if you insist on using pie cuts, but mandrel bends come out cheaper if you value your time.
 
After you think your done look inside to make sure you don’t have mig wire hanging in there that can come loose and trash your engine, or turbo etc
 
I will get some mandrel bent once im ready to do compounds

Atleast got the cooler in.
 

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If you're open to buying new tools (and really, who isn't?), a belt sander is a dream for doing pipe fit up as you can make sure each joint is flat. Mandrels are nice assuming you don't need real tight radius bends. Pie cuts for the win if thats the case.

Do short stitches and move decently quick with a mig. Always sucks to lay a nice bead just to have it droop and blow a hole at the end.
 
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