As I'm teaching myself to TIG I'm taking on small somewhat insignificant projects on my car. The first being adding a vband to my exhaust.

Anyone with experience with the particular vband in question?

Retails for about $35 + shipping...

 

i've been wondering about this myself...i've also seen the 3" assemblies from ACE Stainless for $29 that appear almost IDENTICAL to Vibrant

 

Definitely like some input on this. I don't want to ruin an $80 vband...

 

I've used the ace ones. They are fine the nuts they come with are for **** and have to be replaced. I've also used obx, clampco and the cheapest stuff i could find on ebay. Same deal with the bolt on all but clampco. Here is a pic of a clampco on the left Ace in the middle Chinese on the right For the same money the Chinese are self centering and have a recess for the tube to aid in welding. The spot welds on the clamp are not as good as the ace.

 

the summit ones weld just as good as any of the top dollar ones. summit/jegs store brand stuff works just as well as the brand name stuff. Saw these in their catalog and used them on a dual exhaust 65 nova convertible. Used about 6 of them total.

 

I checked into the ACE brands, they seem nice. So if I bought them, I should replace the nuts?

 

do the summit ones have a male and female flange like the ACE or Vibrant ones, or are they just flat faced? their website doesnt have but the one picture

i will more than likely buy the ACE, however i also need one 1.5" v-band assembly for my wastegate to detach from my downpipe, and i've only seen Vibrant to have those

 

the summit ones do not have a male/female and i know what you mean. RacePartsSolutions has those and they are nice, however, if you buy the cheaper ones and just slip the tube in a little further on one you can make your own male flange basically.

 

yeah, well i can see the ACE ones have it and so does Vibrant, but with the ones from ACE being over half the price is insane since they're practically the same product...just wish i could find a damn 1.5"

 

Chiming in for OBX. I've tried vibrant ones etc, but i still like OBX the best honestly lol. They're quality clamps, male female connections, good finish, they slip fit nice, and i like how they dont make them too long. Most vbands have a 6'' vband stud **** after you tighten them. Obx make the stud a good length so its not sticking out everywhere under the car.

As a side note, as far as people stripping vbands, i've stripped 2 clamps (of various brands, though not obx yet lol) using my little 3/8 makita electric impact (even with low torque setting and going very slow). Im not talking stripped from the beginning, i tightened on by hand, then with a ratchet, and the impact stripped it in the dead center of the stud (without load on the clamp, meaning just running the nut down the stud). So for reference, they really should only be tightened by hand only IMO. I guess that's common sense, but for running the bolt down i wouldnt have thought itd be a problem, till i did it twice and was like. Huh. lol.

 

Race parts solutions are the best ones I've used. But for the customers that don't wanna spend the money we used to use the Columbia River ones.

 

Ive bought jegs ones and they seem to be good quality.

 

Ive played with them all as well.

Vibrant clamps are really nice, the flanges are all more or less the same.

I personally like whatever I can get with a longer sleeve. They are a little less sensitive to the heat you put into them. I cant remember what ones they were, but I welded some super short flanges once (supplied to me) and they didn't like being welded.

 

We are having our own vband assemblys made at the moment. I have got tired of suppliers changing the design randomly (wont work with my jigs made from other design), or quality isint there, and more then most times no one has enough in stock. Ours will be male/female with recess for tubing to sit in it along with quick release vband clamps with actual locking nuts (metal fingered not a stupid plastic filled nut that melts out then you start the car...). We will have 2.500, 3.00", and 4.00" to start.

 

When will those be ready? And any idea what retail wil be?

 

I love posts like that...

 

you should do 1.5" and 2" for wastegate dump back into the exhaust stream...since only Vibrant seems to carry 1.5", i am going with the ACE Stainless 2" for my 1.5" pipe to transition into to

 

We will be adding 1.500", 3.500", and 4.000" v-bands (male/female) to our inventory this quarter. We will also offer the male/female configuration on all of our v-bands in the coming weeks. Our flex coupling line will also be expanded to all sizes between 1.500" and 4.000" as well as a whole new line of aluminum bends, silicone fittings, and quite a few new products will be added our site starting during the first two weeks of March.

Thanks for all the support guys!

 

outstanding input ACE...i was pulling my hair out getting transitions and different sizes of everything which were just stacking up in my shopping cart. you will be getting an order for such things within a day or two of launching them on your site :-)

 

Thank you! In terms of current lead time, we're looking at approximately 3-4 more weeks before we'll have these new sizes on our site.

 

Ace, why not flat rate shipping. If it fits, it ships. A box of els makes everyone all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Props for having the best prices though!

 

I never understood why USPS priority flat rate shipping isn't used more frequently...boxes are free, can travel across the country in a max of three days.

 

I use it to ship, why can't businesses!

 

It's something we have looked into many times but it's not in the cards at the moment. We offer both FedEx and UPS which allows us to ship 95%, or more, of our orders the same day the are received. Although UPS and FedEx aren't as cheap as USPS' flat rate system they are the best solution we have found for both our customers and our business so far.

 

understood