Over the years of Honda-Tech, I've seen many come and go...myself being one of them. 2002 I moved from predominantly doig swaps, to much more fab, as did many.

This forum saw many names rise and fall. It led to countless manifold builders and TIG fabricators doing better work than guys that have TIG welded in the field for 20 years. So much info shared here, I think this forum spawned a lot of careers that has led those folks to other places.

As Honda's die down, and most of us have moved on, this forum dies with it. Hopefully we've all moved on to bigger and better places. I see a lot of guys I've met here at SEMA with Porsches, GTR's, Corvettes (me), Subaru's...you name it.

I come back here every once in a while to see what's happening, but seeing the first page have threads that are over a month old tells me that this fat lady is singing.

 

Gdd is going strong, seems that the Tech sections are the one's falling off. So many people now just want the answer given to them instead of searching or doing their own R&D. Back when we started in Hondas, none of this stuff was being done so we had to figure it all out.

 

People don't realize the "custom" word in fabrication. For example, we do A LOT of chassis, header work, and carbon fiber parts. We will do a roll age for, say, 1400 chromoly. They say but I can buy a pre bent cage for 400? Same with headers (mostly for v8 stuff and twin turbo big inch motors) we usually do a set of mild steel headers for 400, they say I can buy a pair of hedman or hooker headers for 300 from Jegs. They don't realize with fabrication comes parts that are designed for the car at hand, not just bolt it on.

 

I think the fabricators that got good, got smart and moved on to different platforms. But I still come in here to look around and see whats happening. Its always good to get some ideas from others. Nobody wants to build a ramhorn and retail it for $650, when you can build a exhaust in stainless for any vehicle outside of honda for double or more of the ramhorn.

 

from my experience the domestic crowd is the worst for that.

I still come on here and post even though I registered quite a while back under another handle im by no means an O.G.

I miss how its not as busy. Is there any other auto fab forums that are busier?

 

If I count as one of the accused, my departure from here is due to...
-Aging and real priorities now as an adult
-Moved from Hondas to MKIV Supras, which now I own and work on.
-Honda scene to me is a lot of trash now and eBay has won over a majority of the market for parts.

 

Domestic guys are worse when it comes to headers. Import guys are worse when it comes to chassis work.

 

I think you just answered my question of where to get my cage done. $1400 for a chromoly. You have a website or link to your work?

 

The auto industry itself is filled with people who want to go fast, but not wanting to work for the results. It isn't limited to imports, nor limited to domestics.

Last year this time there were several active fabricators posting top notch work on a regular basis. Not so much anymore. The discussions in here were a catalyst for me getting a welder of my own and trying new things I never once thought about trying.

That's the Honda-Tech of years past. A guy, or group of guys wanting to explore possibilities previously unmentioned. Instead of all these " HELP " threads where little boys cry because their car isn't working the way it should.. I remember when the answers were worked for long and hard. Didn't just open up a web browser and start crying and complaining until someone gave me the answer I needed.

 

I come back here occasionally to check and see if I can be of any help by offering examples from my own experience. I don't do as much custom work anymore (most time is my own work) and have spent a lof of time just posting it on my fb page. I gave up my shop this year but still operate my own business by just selling simple product to supplement my own hobby.

I have just recently started a new position with Vibrant Performance and will devote my efforts toward contributing to our success. I still like to be able to help others and that has always been important for me. I would much rather see someone build something with their own hands than buy it and bolt it on. It gives you a true appreciation for the craft of fabrication.

If anyone wants to share their work, an excellent resource that is slowly starting to gain momentum (but could use a little more help with work variety) is www.fabricationlife.com Just submit some interesting work and it will likely get posted. I would love to see people offering to help promote fabrication and the value and quality in custom work. If we all contribute it will raise awareness of just how much effort goes into quality fabrication and in turn promote our skilled trade and keep us welding!

aaron

 

Didn't know you started with Vibrant, Aaron.. that's awesome. Explains the response to me in text message about the air horns.

Cheers,
Matt

 

I have been here for along time as well, but since marriage kids mortgage priorities I don't have the time like I used too. I still like to pop in from time to time to see some of the impressive works of art, and try to recapture passion people had here that always keeps me coming back. What ever happened to everyone that posted their awesome work before? have you continued with fabrication or what did you move onto? Cheers everyone.

 

HT, removed alot of the Fab people saying they were trying to promote there buisness and not paying HT to be a sponser. I dont know if they allowed the people back, but I know it pissed off people who just wanted to show their work.

 

That was the big kick in the *** that we still haven't recovered from, when HT locked out and deleted 9Bells, Toxic, Antilag, etcs show off threads. All of them decided that HT was no longer worth it, and so they all left. I don't blame them one bit either, this website offers very little to them other than being a place where everyone came together to share their work.

As for me, I try to help where I can, but realistically I'm still in the process of learning myself, and I'm so damn busy with school I don't really have the time to get on here much. Honestly, fab work has never been the goal for me, full time anyway. I've always just wanted to do it in my free time and make extra money that way.

 

key reason. internet brands took over and starting playing **** with all the forum members.

 

It died because all people ever posted was turbo manifolds and everything was about tig welding which made people intimidated to post their redneck engineering. Also it died because people were afraid to post non honda related items because that was all that was posted.

That being said I bet 95% of all the awesome manifolds/exhausts you find floating around the internet have some connection to this forum.


All done here first I think
how to build a manifold
How to cut a collector
Randy RMF posting how to cut a collector templates and measure header lengths
bandsaw collector jigs
fullrace geoff showing Aluminum exhausts on imports
Engloid amd Argtronic showing everyone how to weld

I wished people posted more truck stuff, chassis ,motorcycle, bicycle , lathe work ,
snowmobile?

 

Well that is not completely true as Toxic(not trying to single him out) couldn't even weld before coming to this forum, look up his thread with the miller diversion, he learned how to weld(got advice) here https://honda-tech.com/forums/welding-fabrication-53/noob-tig-welder-day-3-what-do-you-think-2457923/

 

Do you happen to have a link to rmf posting on collector templates and measuring header lengths? I tried searching but couldn't find anything.

 

Sorry I don't recall what topic is was under, i remember he was using a differnt name too must have been 6 years ago

 

Yeah, I remember when Honda Tech banned all those guys, who were a big reason why I came here in the first place. You can learn a lot just by feeling out what other people are doing, if not just push yourself to do better.

Evo-M tried to do the same thing iirc, but back tracked really quickly.

Without those dudes this section died out because the average quality of work went way down with it.

 

Well alot of the guys started some welding forum, I dont remember the name tho. It wasent about Hondas. There were tons of diffrent fab people on here learning off each other and giving tips. I wish HT wouldnt of gotten all money hungry and gave those guys the "Pay or leave" choice.. No one could pay the rates HT wanted while still working to make money.

 

Yeah, I know how he came about his skill haha.

In fact that kind of increases the value of my point. People came here to see the awesome work that people were doing and stuck around. Toxic did the same thing and ended up becoming someone who a lot of us inspired to be. Still do in fact. The point is that suddenly all of the talent was told to leave, and who was left were people like myself who don't weld every day and haven't gotten to the levels of Toxic and Bells and those guys, so now it's not nearly as interesting a forum and the traffic is well... eh.

 

Agreed.

And to add to that, these guys who were learning as they went, they also took the time to help and inspire others to be better welders. Never once heard these guys be jerks to new comers, simply because they've aquired a skill set.

There have been other people brought back to these boards for "knowledge purposes" but nothing very knowledgable has come of it. I feel as though the Fab section could use a resurgence of the OG fabricators to continue to help and inspire.

I know Facebook is the rage and it's über easy to post things, but dammit I've gotten used to H-T and it's many knowledgable members. I'd hate for it to dwindle away because of revenue.

 

I agree with that as well. Come the new year I will be doing small welding jobs for friends and for myself on the weekends. This forum has lost a lot of good welders/fabricators. I now follow them on instagram to see all their awesomeness. If anyone cares, user @weldporn posts a lot of great material from welders all over the world.

 

I was one of the first ones with Toxic to get booted, which defiantly caused an uproar, I remember every one jumped to another fab forum which was short lived. I still post quite a bit of stuff to my fab thread, everything from machining, solidworks, and fab on imports to domestics, but we defiantly dont see the traffic it used to have. I think its much easier for individuals to also follow on fab life and the fabricators personal or company facebook/instagram pages. Everything I post on here can be found on my pages.

I try to keep things going on in here as I learned alot just trolling but it is a sign of the times. I honestly dont want to look at ram horn manifolds being built, im looking for more one off intricate items being made.