02 Oct Expanding Branding
Following the success of our FMU E39 M5 Rear Section, it’s time to start expanding our branding.
After shipping out several kits and seeing customers send out positive reviews everywhere from YouTube to M5Board, we thought long and hard (heh heh) about whether or not we should come out with a second set for a different car. After some debate, we’ve decided to create a new set for a new vehicle. We know what we do on our end to produce the sound we want, and it’s just a matter of transferring that over to another vehicle. Which is what we’re currently doing, so let’s bring you in and show you the process behind making the first prototype of a new product. The first thing we’ll do is put the resonators in place in the cavity created by removing the old muffler setup. For this one, we’ve got ample space in there, so we’re able to tuck the resonators higher up than we did on the E39 M5, yet still at a proper angle for both the exhaust hangers and the tips.
Once the position of the resonators is finalized, we start working on the piping running from the midsection to the rear of the resonators. Since they’re the same resonators used on the E39 M5 Rear Section, we’re able to quickly craft together a Y-pipe using our existing methods. We’ll also be utilizing the same style of clamps, as well, as they provide a suitable clamping force without driving up cost unnecessarily. We are also arranging the tip style, shape and tacking that all together at the same time. A “fever of activity” is probably the best way to explain this.
Once the tacks are in place and all the pipes meet up in a satisfactory manner, it’s time to take it to the welding table for a bit of backpurged TIG action. That sounds pretty dirty out of context, doesn’t it?
You know the phrase, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Well, we’ve adapted it a bit to our personal situation: “Where there’s welding, there’s weld porn.” As always, we’re proud of the skills of our fabrication team and have no problem relaying that to the world. So here it is, for your enjoyment:
With the majority of the welds in place, Zak takes another look at the tips to make sure everything is still lining up correctly. Also, he’s trying to become a male model, so he might just be working on his pose here. We’re not too sure, and frankly, we’re too creeped out to ask.
Now that the Rear Section is built from midsection to resonators, it can hold itself in the air. Almost. First, we’ll have to work on hangers, as it won’t be able to hold itself up from the midsection alone. We had one point that we had to make absolute sure of — there’s a gap of approximately 1, 1.5 inches between part of the Rear Section arm and the suspension, so we need to make sure that the hangers are strong enough to keep the rear section relatively solid. After a couple different designs, we settled on a double-bar hanger design that adds a bit of extra reinforcement, cutting down on unnecessary movement. We spent some time testing this design, and it worked perfectly, so now it’s time to head to the welding table with it.
Once we TIG welded the hangers to the resonators and connecting arm, we once again test-fit the whole system to make sure nothing was out of whack. And, surprise surprise, everything still fits correctly and we won’t need to do any minor adjustments to the bars to get them to stay exactly where we want them. And, again, we did some welding, so you know what that means:
We’re not getting down to specifics yet, as we still have to put together the tips and get everything else in order before we decide to release this to the public as an item for sale. We’ll want to make sure it sounds like we want it to, and performs like we want it to, and once we get the jig made, then we will blast the internet with all sorts of information. For now, though, we’re still working on welding and placing the tips, so we should have some more info for you soon!
We’ll be back tomorrow! Have a great day!
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