By the time I get this thing running they'll be dry. And when I do get it running, no doubt they'll smoke. And I'm not gonna mind a bit.

 

I wrapped the headers and uppipe on a monster Subaru, dyno tuned, and test drove. I went out to romp on it the first time thinking that the smoking would be all done. I ran it 1st-3rd twice, coming to a stop at a busy intersection next to the freeway. I thought I had sprung an alcohol leak under the hood or had oil spraying around because I had clouds of white smoke billowing out of the hoodscoop. Freaked me out bigtime. Now I know to expect it, even after dry-in sometimes.

Your wrap job looks good. I typically use a titanium clamp instead of the stainless zip ties that come with the DEI kits. You are getting close to riding your machine and I know you gotta be stoked. It's coming along quite nicely.

 

Ergo, I have read a bunch of your build thread and it is awesome!
But why not go with a color exhaust wrap that matches up with the bike. I mean I like blacked out bikes about as much as a person could, but you dont have too much orange and i think an orange exhaust wrap would make up for the not so custom exhaust?! IDK, just a though. I am sure after 2 hours of wrapping you wont be doing that lol.

 

Damn, looks good.

I would highly recommend the stainless clamps. You can snag them at any auto parts store.

 

Thanks UFO. I did a quick search for titanium hose clamps and didn't come up with much. Sounds like a good idea but most places say discontinued or out of stock. And I suspect the price is quite a bit higher than stainless, no?

 

You're right. I'm not redoing it now.

Thanks wrestler. I toy with adding more orange to the mix. I'm thinking that an orange exhaust might be a bit much, but maybe mixing orange and black on the wrap...use a one inch orange wrap and run it half an inch overlap between the black. If you could find orange wrap. Would be hell trying to do that by yourself but if two people were doing it, might be manageable. Maybe I'll try that next time I wrap them.

 

Thanks mad. If it turns out as good as yours I will be very happy. I like the look of the two stainless clamps like you've got. Autozone here I come...

 

Here they are with the flanges in place and painted flat black with VHT header paint.


Nothin left to do but install them...

 

Have you considered looking for Orange plug wires? I think it would give you just a little bit of accent on the motor and still keeping with the blacked out style, yet tie in the tank with the rest of the bike. I personally think if you were to try and do Orange and black wrap on the exhaust, it would just be a little much. Just a suggestion. Bike is coming out great!

 

I do appreciate the suggestions. There are thousands of options with something like this and I can't think of everything. So thanks.

Ya, I considered the orange plug wires. Actually, I've considered lots of different orange accents. I did end up buying the antique orange seat from Mother Road Customs. I almost wish I'd just gone with black. Not that I'm unhappy with it, just that it's hard to know how much orange is too much orange at this point. I've got the Variant Fabrication timer cover that adds a touch on the right side. And I painted the little HD logo on the coil on the left. With things like plug wires, if I think I need more orange in the mix after I'm done, I can always add those for very little cost and install time. I need to get the tins painted and see just how much orange I end up with on them, and then decide. I don't want to end up with too much orange and have to black things out. Figure I can add a bit of orange here and there later if needed relatively easily.