Custom Pipes for the Savage

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Racer 1966

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Joplin, MO
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For a long time I have pondered the idea of building some zoomies for my Savage but with the size and way pipes mount I didn't see an easy way to get them functional. Then a while back Robin at Extreme RC Mods posted THIS thread on some pipes he made. I thought that would be easy to duplicate and looked great so I decided to give it a try. I ran into several issues but I got it done. Here's how I went about it.

First problem was finding some tubing to make them from. I figured it would be easy to find something at the shop where I work but that didn't pan out. Then I was digging around in my garage and came across some old radio antennas. They were larger versions of the AM/FM telescoping antennas used on the r/c transmitters. I disassembled the sections and used the sizes that looked right for the job. Of course the largest section for the main trunk,the next largest for the split off trees and a couple of sizes down for the final upright pipes. From there it was a simple cut and solder operation. I cut them long and then fit them according to what looked to scale with the truck. I made sure to drill my holes to just barely fit the pipes and then used silver solder to assemble it together. Now the top pipe unit was complete.

old-antennas.jpg


top-pipe-unit.jpg


top-pipe-unit2.jpg


The next problem: what tuned pipe to use. For the ERCM unit,Robin had an end bleed pipe and then cut and soldered a square corner into the top unit. I wanted to have something more curved and flowing. I wasn't sure on the tuned pipe yet but my thought was to make a bent tube to connect between the two sections. For the tuned pipe,I decided to use an old HPI pipe and flip it over so the stinger was up. That's easy enough but the stinger is angled to the rear of the truck. After some thought I decided to cut the stinger off and use an old Traxxas Pro.15 header to make a new stinger that angled to the front and curved inward on the truck. It's hard to see in the pics,but note that the Traxxas header and my tubes are larger than than the stinger ID was on the pipe. I found out my aluminum welding skills were a bit rusty,but I got it done.

header&pipe.jpg


hpi-pipe.jpg


Now to connect the tuned pipe to the top pipe unit. I figured the bent tube would be an easily done piece but that didn't work so well either. The antenna tubing as you know is very thin and it's chrome plated. When I attempted to bend a section there was no bending to it,it just snapped. I tried heating it then bending it but it just deformed way to much. After some sleeping on it,I came up with this idea. I used a large Dubro exhaust deflector on the tuned pipe,a Traxxas Nitro Sport exhaust elbow on the top pipe and after some trimming to get the fit I wanted I coupled them together with a piece of the antenna tubing.

couplers.jpg


The final obstacle now was to how to get it all mounted on the truck. The positioning of the top pipe of course needed to be in the right location for the proper look on the truck body but the shock tower and body mounts were right in the way. I ended up trimming the body mount so that it would fit between the rear 2 upright pipes on each side. and then zip-tied the unit to the top of the shock mounts. With it all now mounted in place on the truck,I marked and cut holes in the body for the pipe poke through. Of course I used my old worn out body for the first fit just in case I really screwed up,but It worked out ok.

Here are the finished pics. Well almost finished,I still need to clean it up and re-polish the tips and I'm going to paint the lower section with black header paint. And........ before you all start flaming me that it won't last with the mount trimmed that way and the pipes will get damaged easily,let me say this. Duh!!!!! This isn't a bash worthy set up. It is functional and sounds good,but that's it. It's mainly just a neat looking shelf queen set up.

body-mount.jpg


hood-pipes3.jpg


hood-pipes2.jpg


hood-pipes1.jpg
 
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