I am just about to cut the hole in my side panel for the exhaust pipes, is there a set dimension that the pipes should be away from the body

My mock up looks like this:

Alloy or fibreglass?

Cardboard you'll need a LOT more space..

Depends on what the side of your car is made from. GRP doesn't like getting hot. Obviously an ali side panel won't care so much and won't need such a big gap. If it's ali though you'll need to do something re the sharp edges for SVA/IVA and obviously if you use rubber trim it won't like the heat unless you allow space for it....... I have individual holes for each tube but I think I allowed only about 5mm gap.......

quote:

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Originally posted by dogwood
Alloy or fibreglass?

Cardboard you'll need a LOT more space..

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Sorry can't help realy

As Ben says aloy not a problem
Mine is about 10mm gap


David

IMO curves look much better than square corners in that area. Also bear in mind the panel needs turning back on itself or a trim added for minimum radius for SVA/IVA.
Cheers, Pewe

PS Wicket you were lucky - my guy took the view that anything that was accessible whilst working on the car/servicing it needed to have a radiused, i.e. not raw edge. He was right - practically slashed an artery whilst delving into the pedal box recently.

[Edited on 5/2/09 by pewe]

May not need trimming, depends whether the test sphere touches the edges. Mine passed OK with out any edging

Definitely looks nicer as a curved and trimmed hole, if its GRP then sharp corners will only crack the gel coat in a very short time

like this looks great -




[Edited on 5/2/09 by Mr Whippy]

quote:

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Originally posted by wicket
May not need trimming, depends whether the test sphere touches the edges. Mine passed OK with out any edging

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I've used exhaust wrap then left about 5mm gap to the GRP. As I'm still building it the exhaust hasn't had a chance to get hot so I don't know if there is enough gap? Any comments (Pinto 2.0efi)?

Id go for 1-2cms around the exhaust for clearnance. How are you going to fit your exhaust? I found mine with the MNR collector impossible to fit headers then the collector so i fitted the headers to the collector then fitted it all through the hole as one piece so i made my hole big enough to slid it in one side at a time - have a look at my blog below for pics.
Adam