Rust never sleeps

I could not find a decent pipe and an affordable price for my '90 (I know it's not vintage but bear with me) so I decided to build one myself.
I bike is a '90 250 WXE and looked to replace the stock pipe I thought weighed 8 lbs or so - in fact the stock OEM Husky / Cagiva pipe weighed in at a svelte 3 lbs 14 oz.
Anyway, since no one would make me a pipe for anything under $500 with shipping both ways, I proceeded to fabricate my own using the stocker as a template. The diameter is 3mm more at the widest point.
I used a light weight steel and stole the mounting tabs from the OEM pipe. When finished it weighed in at 3 lbs even, almost a pound less!

Since we (vintage guys) are always looking to get rid of rust, I embraced it and put the "gunsite" logo in rust.

The method or rust used was my home brew of Hydrogen Peroxide, vinegar and salt. I dabbed in on through a stencil made from sandblast material.
Next is to seal the rust to stop further acceleration with acetone and oil.

Nice tat.

Yup, photographed original pipe in 3D modeling software. Wire frame results gives me the x,y and distance coordinates. There is a total of 9 sections at 180 degrees each. Water jet cut. About 8 hr on the English wheel and 2 1/2 hr more with a mallet before welding.

As you can see, I'm not the best of welders

Now that is very impressive!! Excellent Job and thanks for sharing.

That is an awesome job

Very cool!

Very cool. Would love to see some build photos of that pipe if you took any during the forming process.

Very impressed. As a Cad programmer myself , it must have been a lot of work. Congradulations.

I suppose CAD is much like animation.
The hard part was figuring out the size of cuts. After the welding was done, a primer was used to keep the parts rust free until I was ready to mount the tabs.
I must have used enough material for three pipes before I got it right!

HWY, you have MAD skills!

Nice work buddy.

Just....WOW.

This vintage forum is blowing my little mind!

Good to know craftsmanship is alive and well.

That's amazing...you should have documented the process with photos!