Help!! Dented CMI Headers!!
 

Anyone have any suggestions on how to fix these headers for Cheap. The dents are right on the top side in plain sight too....They are CMI's for a V10 Ilmor that I just bought...

Thanks, Derek

http://gallery.me.com/bullittcustoms...12951013730001

Fill with water then pressurize with air try 15psi. Heat with torch. No guarantees. Will work on thin metal some signs of the dent will still be there. Re-polish when happy repair. Good luck!

if they were damaged in shipping then file a claim with the shipper and get a new one.

Had UPS bent the same prop twice, What can Brown screw up for you today.
Good question , did they arrive that way?

They were put inside a boat we had delivered and were boxed when we got em. They went from the guy we got them from to inside the cockpit of a daytona to my shop floor when we opened them. The guy I bought them from just failed to mention they were beat all to S**T..... I wonder if CMI will fix for a reasonable price?

Derek

Derek
CMI has to cut them apart and install a new tube. Sorry for your misfortune.
Ed

Since the damage is near the open end, find a good automotive paintless dent guy. They have a bunch of special shaped tools that can pretty much get anywhere. They can probably pop those out with no problem. Jeff Wurl

Tig weld on some welding rod peices and use a slide hammer and heat, similar to a body shop pin puller dent remover. I would just try and get it opened up for water flow, then maybe a carbon fiber accent panel the covers the bump for some added bling. Good Luck

Exactly. Should be able to pull it out quite a bit.

Or if its only the outer tube, and just the one on the top you could slice the outer tube off, knock the dents out and then tig it back on. That way if the inner is dinged, when you pull the outer off you could fix the inner too.

+1

This is the only repair method that I can see working. 15lbs. of air pressure and moderate heat isn't going to do anything to those headers.

Dry ice it then heat it.

if you try heat you risk making the stainless brittle and headers are anealed a form of stress relieving after welding
i dont recommend it as a metal man if you do decide to use heat do not heat past the metal being golden umber in color anything past that leaches the nickle and chromium out of the stainless
releasing all of the metals inherent properties
you might try drilling a very small hole and using a self tapping screw to pull the dent out
then tig weld the holes closed
purge the inside of the tube being welded with pure argon
then pressure test the weld with water not air to see if its sound
no matter how you slice unless you have the capacity to do the work yourself its going to be expensive
good luck
PS WJB21 also had a GOOD IDEA even better than mine tig a rod on and use the rod as a slide hammer
no welding needed mind the heat though, thats still valid might even work without the extra heat

I would call CMI or email them the picture and get a price.

Good luck with that. $5 says they'll tell you that can't fix it. That is, if they ever call you back. They are the worst company I've dealt with.

C. deezy was right about slice and weld. Been there,done it.

+1 your best bet for the least noticeable repair is going to be with a skilled welder/fab guy. I wouldn't cut out the entire tube though, just a window where the damage is in a rectangle. I would use the thinnest cutting wheel i could get my hands on, even one of those Dremmels if need be they have some really thin wheels and you would go through a bunch. Once the piece is cut free metal finish the dent out and weld it back in. I use to do high end sheet metal fab for street rods and vintage restorations and this method really isnt that much of a stretch. I highly talented welder could tig that back in no prob and once finished out at worst you might have a slightly discolored surface that you would really have to point out to notice. Hell if i was a better stainless welder I'd tackle this one just for fun :D

stud gunning it (the method of welding the rod on) is pretty specific to very small dents and can work but these look a little large for that. The problem is it will sort of stretch and pyramid the metal on larger dents making the surface even worse. Dents do not "pop" out when trying to repair them, the metal has to be worked back to its original shape. The metal has been stretched to form the dent and stud gunning can stretch it even further.

Are we looking at two dents on that tube, one by the seam and another further down the bend?

Send them back to CMI they can fix them and the work will be correct,we just had some sport tubes fixed with dents and they look like new now 2c