When I started my home built twin turbo car I had to do a lot of firsts, one of which was fab up exhaust tubing, charge piping, and make header modifications in order to meet my goal. It quickly became obvious that this type of fabrication was no small task to a beginner, so I had to find a way to hold any given piece of pipe or tubing together for fitment but I needed it to be able to be taken apart and reassembled without a ton of time lost.
Enter our good buddy masking tape, I would simply position a piece of tubing together, secure it with the tape then after a few trial and error sessions when the correct angle was accomplished I would take a razor blade and cut out a small diamond exposing the tubing where it joins together and voila a perfect spot to tack weld things in place. This process was repeated at least two more times then the tape can come off completely for final welding.
This process may not be new but it certainly helped me out and it can be utilized on any type of exhaust work, charge piping, and header construction to save a lot of time and frustration.
1. I'm using this straight joint for ease of demonstration.
2.Masking tape installed, firmly holding the two pieces together but can still allow easy disassembly for adjustments.
3. Use a razor blade to cut the tape and expose a tacking area.
4. Then you can tack pipes together while retaining the positioning of the pipes.
5. Repeat the process around the tube until you get a solid tack. Then remove the tape and weld the joint completely. I used pipe instead of tubing on the headers to help support the weight of the turbos, but the principle is the same. This took quite a bit of removing and resetting in order to achieve the correct angle.
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