Very clever, Bob. Always coming up with new ideas. I can appreciate the amount of work that goes into building custom headers having just built a set for the Lexus IS-F's that we're building for the Speed World Challenge GT series (actually, two cars and probably a third later.) These cars will have 4.7 liter V8 engines. Here's some pictures of the headers I made. This is just a pattern set, really. We bought four boxes of used inconel headers from a Grand Am prototype team that was using the same engine, like 5 or 6 car sets, for $500! These headers would have cost about $6000 each set when they were new! Anyway, I used those for the flanges and collectors and bends and cut them up and welded them together into something that would fit our cars. The engine builder had very specific parameters for the header design. 1.75" primary for so many inches into 1.875" for so many inches into 2" for so many inches, certain cylinders paired together, crossover in a certain place, etc. Oh, and they have to be equal length and fit around the steering shaft and dry sump oil pump in a very tight engine compartment with the engine sitting right on the crossmember and set way back. Which is why they look like the bundle of snakes that they do. Very challenging, lots of trial and error fitting. It took me 2 weeks to build these (along with doing a few other things.) From these patterns jigs are being made so they can be copied several times over. Subsequent sets will look much nicer since there won't be as many seams and some of the bends can be made a little smoother.
Anyway, just thought I would share part of the reason why I haven't made any progress on my Ascona restoration lately.
And maybe a little insight and acknowledgment to the amount of time and work that goes into these projects that Bob gets himself into.