mandrel bender in colorado

[ba109296]

Someone posted this on CODSM, figured it would be a good thing for everyone to know about.

Hanksville Hot Rods in Littleton/Highlands Ranch has an in-house mandrel exhaust bender and specializes in custom performance exhaust for cars and trucks. We also specialize in roll bars for full-interior cars and trucks.

Are you working on an exhaust or intake project for that special car, 4x4 or street rod? Do you need a difficult-to-find bend that's not available via the mail-order places? We can probably help. We currently have extra inventory of specialty bends in 1.625", 2", 2.5", and 3" exhaust tube. $25 for aluminized or $30 for stainless steel for pre-bent inventory.

We also offer custom bending for $35 per bend plus the cost of the tube; we can also end-finish (flare/flange/expand/reduce) for an additional charge.

Our benders are heavy-duty, programmable and numeric controlled. No job too small, and we also welcome fabrication work! MIG and TIG welding available.

Visit us at www.hanksvillehotrods.com, email at info@hanksvillehotrods.com, or call us at 303.949.3623.

[fusionsport]

Thats really pretty expensive for the pre-bent and REALLY expensive of the custom bends. If they can charge that much I should re-think my pricing in a big way.

[ba109296]

Well since you brought it up.....what is the pricing for the same stuff at your shop?

[fusionsport]

Well, different bends having different pricing, and I am actually about to reduce pricing on most bends, but for say a 3" mandrel 90 I am currently charging 29 bucks, and will be reducing that to 26-7 dollars each in the very near future, like when my new order comes in lol. This is for "bright finished" 16 ga. I sometimes get "raw" finished bends which are cheaper and usually used for exhuast, but most people want the bright finish.

35 bucks a bend plus tubing sounds high to me, unless you can make an entire piece, like for your exhaust, all at the same time and save the costs of fitting/welding. However most people are not going to be able to measure well enough to get an accurate clock and fit everywhere.
This WOULD be extremely helpful if you needed like a 115deg bend and didnt want to fabricate it up.

[Special Ed GT]

Hi, everyone. I'm Hank, and I run Hanksville Hot Rods. We've received a few calls from DSM owners in the last coupla weeks and one of them referred me to this forum. I'm not a DSM owner, but I drag race and am a part-time tech inspector at Bandi, so I respect the power and traction that you all enjoy from your cars. I also try to learn as much as possible about customers' cars so that I can better help them with their exhaust and roll cage fitment issues.

I just wanted to say hi and to clarify what we do and what's behind our pricing. I agree that $35+tube cost is too much for a bend and, since we're a new business that is strictly focused on automotive tube bending, I am trying to figure out just what price point we should be at. So, I appreciate fusionsport's feedback and welcome any and all input.

We generally try to be competitive as much as possible with the mail order places for our prices (for instance, Jegs charges $30 for 1 5/8" stainless bends, including tube cost). We're a low volume custom header/exhaust/roll cage fab shop and only get tube in 1-3 stick quantities at a time so I don't get a great deal on the raw material, and I have two very expensive CNC benders to pay for, so I can't always offer the best price. Like fusionsport stated, we are helpful for the tough-to-find angles (like 115 degrees for example) that you can't easily get mail-order. We do give discounts to other shops and to customers who buy multiple bends from us. We also offer club and forum discounts when we know that customers will spread the word and help bring in business.

We also are well-suited for customers who want a single continuous tube (exhaust, headers, water inlet/outlet, air intake, etc.) with multiple bends or clocks, with a minimum of welds. We do custom headers and exhaust systems this way, and we take lots of time to carefully measure the distances between bends to make continuous unspliced tubes wherever possible. We also often take the time to build a mock-up tube to better measure where and what bends are needed, then we bend up the real tube that the customer gets. Having the in-house mandrel bender means we can go back to the machine as needed to make sure we get the bends right. This means we use more time and material, but it gives customers a nicer, more professional finished appearance.

Again, I appreciate any feedback you can provide, since as a hot rodder myself, I want to make sure we're serving the racing/performance community as well as we can. Thx!

Hank