Well first I bought one of those pipe benders from Northern, what a piece of crap! It will only bend heavy wall pipe.
....Then, on the internet I found a bunch of real tubing benders, JD squared had the best price, $235 plus one set of dies, 1" diameter 3" radius with shipping $411. Ouch, well, this is the only way I am going to pull off my Raptorette with the Blaster front end for my son so,, here goes. DOM (Drawn Over Mandrel) seems to be the best mild steel tubing, in .065" wall thickness. Because of the tight radius, these benders will simply NOT work with thin-wall chrome-moly tubing. There are many many dies available for these benders, perhaps a larger radius die would work on thin wall chrome moly. I think the really good stuff is .035' wall thickness. That's where the weight savings is. (EMT Conduit is about .040", and bends just fine with cheap conduit hickey bars, but the sizes are different.)
.......More later,,,

 

Mr Fourlix, this is off topic and I apoligize, how do you like your timmy boy uppers, did you notice a difference, were they difficult to put on and adjust, do they come with instructions and all necessary hardware, do i need any special tools, I am on the verge of buying some and any help would be greatly appreciated- thanks- kaiser

 

The timmyBoy uppers are a class act. Really very simple, high quality and very effective. Mine came with no instructions, but a solid rear axle quad is easy to align.
.......I knew I wanted a lot of caster, around 9 degrees, I think the stock DS is about 5. I set the Heim joints where the upper A-arm attaches to the frame so the front was screwed out about 6 threads, but the back was only out 1 thread. This pulls the top ball joint at the hub back, increasing the pivot angle between it and the lower ball joint. I used the shock as an alignment gauge, it is tipped back just about 9 degrees and is always there to check against. Line up the center of the top of the ball joint with the center of the shock rod.
..... Then you adjust the camber at the ball joints. Line up the front to back wheels for camber, (you want the wheels tipped in at the top just a smidge, 1 or 2 degrees as viewed from directly in front. You might want to do this with a rider's weight.
.....Last, set the toe-out to 1/8", keep your handlebars straight.

 

Mr. Fourlix, thank you this is a big help, I will buy them- Kaiser

 

Hey fourlix I was just checking out my latest issue of Sand Sports magazine and saw this add and thought of your post here, they are catering to home buggy builders http://www.lowbucktools.com/

 

i have a PRO-TOOLS tubing bender.its model 105,these benders are great,the 105 is 275.00 and dies range from 105.00 for a 1/2" to 225 for a 2".they come in 120,180 ro240 degree bend.they have hydraulic benders also but they are more money.you can also convert the 105 to hydraulic. www,pro-tools.com

 

Mr. FWG, sounds interesting I would like to check them out, do you have any number I can contact them. Have you are any friends used these a-arms. Thanks for the post. Kaiser

 

I found the same type bender for $235 from JD Square, plus a one inch die for $411 including shipping. I am going to add a 1.5" die and make a few end caps too. The 1.5" tailpiece works well with a little curve at the exit.
.....I am going to make these end caps on an exchange/core or just a quick turn around using the stock end cap. I have figured out how to do it without messing up the chrome...much. I think the stock DS exhaust has a really good design when combined with a free flowing end cap. If you take your end cap off, check out the inner perforated liner, it enlarges like a classic megaphone exhaust. The hard part of making a new end cap is stamping out the cap itself. I think I can sell these for about $45.
.....I will do some dyno, decibel and seat of the pants testing, but I sure like mine. I am going to need some guinea pigs for working out my production techniques, so I am going to make some for cheap. And I would buy anyone's abandoned muffler end cap for prototype work.
......I'd pay $20 for the first 5 end caps I get if anyone is interested,
or, if you are not using your stock muffler, send it to me and I will get you a prototype, after I get to play with it for a while of course. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

Stop the Presses! Cancel that $400+ Bender! I just got some DOM 1 inch, .065" wall thickness tubing and I can bend it with my 3/4" Conduit "hickey bar" bender. I got the tubing UPS from "Pulley Engineering". 4-8 foot sticks for $48 including shipping. It is just a little harder to bend than 3/4" EMT conduit in the same bender.
The saga continues.....