Newbie/tube bending dude

[Special Ed GT]

Hey, gang. I live in Highlands Ranch and am a fabricator at my family's shop, which specializes in custom mandrel-bent headers and exhaust, and roll cages. We have an in-house mandrel bender which brings us lots of cool car projects.

I drive and race a Mustang now but I'm thinking about a WRX or Evo someday. I've done bending and worked on roll cage and exhaust projects for other shops that modify Minis, Audis, Subarus, and other imports and I like the idea of having good traction on the street without having to switch to my DRs all the time.

I'm also a tech inspector at Bandimere Speedway which allows me to get up close and personal with some quick cars.

Anyway, if you're in the Littleton/Highlands Ranch area, feel free to come check out the shop and talk cars sometime.

Hank

[velocity]

welcome to the site

[john]

Welcome aboard!

[Deceptakhan]

Welcome.

[M@]

Oooo! Someone with a mandrel bender! Will you be my new best friend? ;)

Welcome to the site.

[integra_drk]

maybe you want to make me a manifold...
anyways, welcome

[HondaPower]

WHASTUPP!!!!

[floored4door]

welcome to HAI.

[Slava]

Welcom. Can you gime mo some contact info for your shop?

[Nick_S]

welcome

[kwando_MDA]

welcome... yeah more info about the shop and pics of your work... hope to see you around

[Special Ed GT]

Thx for the welcomes. I'll post some pics of some projects we've done, but in the meantime you can check out info on the shop and some pics on our website (link in the sig).

Hank

[Mario]

No shit that's awesome. I work just up the street. I'll swing by and say hi sometime. What's the shop hours?

[Special Ed GT]

Hey, Mario, yeah, stop by sometime. Official hours are 9:30-6:00 but I'm usually there earlier.

Hank

[Mario]

Great.

You know, you are the first person to have a mandrel bender that I know of in the area. What's the biggest diameter piping you guys can do?

[Special Ed GT]

Yeah, I think we're the only shop around that does mandrel bending for the automotive market. We can do up to 3" aluminized or stainless. Plenty big for most non-diesel applications.

Hank

[Mario]

That's amazing. Wish you guys were around a couple years ago when I did my Prelude.

PS, if you guys can offer FMIC kits, custom exhausts, etc. and have a nice price layout with some great samples... with the right advertising, you could make a killing out here.

[Pang]

Welcome aboard!

[Special Ed GT]

That's amazing. Wish you guys were around a couple years ago when I did my Prelude.

PS, if you guys can offer FMIC kits, custom exhausts, etc. and have a nice price layout with some great samples... with the right advertising, you could make a killing out here.

Yeah, we're working on it! :) We're doing alot of project work right now, which is great. We need to devote more off-hours time to product/kit R&D. We have alot of cool samples and are working on our car show/race event display.

Hank

[Mario]

Great. Well I am a photographer, so if you guys ever need any quality pictures let me know. :) Welcome again, I'll swing by sometime soon and say hi.

[M@]

And if you need a car to do a little R&D on, I'd gladly volunteer mine. :)

[Special Ed GT]

Thx, as long as you keep that bouncing fireplace hearth in your sig, I might take you up on that! :)

Hank

[M@]

Bahahaha! I never even noticed the fireplace. ;)

[doogie06]

Welcome to the site.

[Special Ed GT]

Hey, gang. Some of you wanted to see some of the stuff we can do. Here's a link to a pic of a header we fabbed for a (don't shoot me) SBC in a street rod.

http://www.hanksvillehotrods.com/gui/content.asp?w=pages&r=183&pid=196

The primaries are all one-piece, continuous tubes (except for one seam in one tube). Having the in-house mandrel bender helps us to make nicer-looking tubes since you end up w/ fewer weld seams. It's admitedly more expensive, since we have to pay for the machine, but it does give you a cleaner install. We're doing our best to be competitive with the mail-order places for the price of our bends.

We're working on an ecotec exhaust right now, a really simple set of bends but I'll post them when we're done. I'll post pics of more import installs once we get the cars in the door! :)

Hank

(edit) sorry for posting the link, but I couldn't resize the pic down enough to post it.

[ghost_masterCL]

would you be able to give a quote if you had a picture of a custom turbo manifold, or would it be better to see the car in person?

[Special Ed GT]

Best to bring the car in so I can see it in person. But, if you'd like, go ahead and email me pics and a description of what you'd like, and we can go from there. Thx!

hank@hanksvillehotrods.com

Hank