1956 Ford F100 - Totally Tubular

All cleaned up, the finished tubes will become a well-engineered sculpture, once they're welded to the driver-side header flange.

Reading left to right on the driver side, Rob commenced to tack-weld header tube No. 1.

Header tubes that are equivalent in length and engineered so fastidiously provide ideal engine breathability and achieve more power-sweet music to any hot rod hauler's heart (and right foot). For both the driver and passenger sides, the headers are designed to have the first and fourth header tubes run inside, while the middle two tubes snake to the outside.

After tack-welding the four tubes to the flange, he confirmed the brake-pedal arm cleared the pipes. Rob also verified the steering shaft needled between the tubes and didn't interfere with any metal surfaces when being turned (diagonal shaft to the left of the brake-pedal arm).

Before removing the driver-side tack-welded headers from the engine block, the engine had to be lifted slightly with the cherry picker. Rob delivered the pipes to Mike so he could fully TIG seam-weld them.

So that the collector would not interfere with the No Limit tubular chassis, Rob shortened the single 2 1/2-inch pipe end with the reciprocating saw.

Before welding the four header tubes to the collector, a star is welded between them. Doing so enables the fabricator to create a fully sealed set of headers-eliminating the possibility of an exhaust leak.

Once he'd welded the star and tubes completely together, Rob tapped the tubes tight to prepare them to receive the 4-into-1 collector.

He pushed and tapped the collector onto the tube ends.