The downpipes are VK and for the time being they are for all intents and purposes defunct due to legal issues. The problem is that the front pipe, when trying to line up to the turbo, will be flush on the bottom but have a 1/8" or so gap on the top - too large for the clamp to compensate for.
So I took the pipe down and found this:
Picture of the gap:
(May be hard to see but the majority of the flange is sitting on a flat surface, you can see there is a gap with both the part that goes inside and the flange the clamp connects too
Here is how the flush "correct" part sits:
Notice it is a few MM lower than the defect.
So for the time being the car is on the rack, job 3/4 complete. I could
A) Undo everything and put the stock DPs back, hoping one day VK's legal problems will be resolved and address the defect then.
-or-
B) Bring the pipes to a metal fabricator and see if they can do anything with them. This is what info I am after - has anyone here had this or a similar problem and have they ever resolved it short of getting a replacement DP?
The nature of the "bend" to me seems like someone dropped the pipe while it was still hot - I know plenty of people are running the VK pipes without fitment defects. Is it possible to heat the pipe back up and pound it to where it's correct?
Any other ideas - what would you guys do?