im doing my research before i buy my turbo kit and ive pretty much etablished that i want the HAhn stage 1 insted of the 2 because of price... but i want to get an intercooler from another source and some custom ic piping and hopefully i wont pay the extra 800 it costs for stage 2 upgrade.... ive looked arround and no one does mandrell (sp?) bending so how would i get the pipes done? unless someone knows someone in the chicagoland area who does. the other question is whats better a smic off a 1g or a intercooler off a saab or a volvo from the junkyard... id rather do the 1g smic if it will handle boost well and cool the air well enough.. and my final question is what do you have to do to the turbo to make the 5-7 psi kit go to 10 psi.. dont you have to do something to the wastegate on the turbo?
thanks ahead of time for any imput.

Well you can order the pipes from JCWhitney and pay 20 bux to have it welded w/ the BOV flange and all. I got a muff shop to build mine for 20 dollars on a press bender and I welded all the pieces for my 1g SMIC. With the 1g and pipe it was less than 50 bones for my stage II. I would personally order the WG to come with the 8 lb spring if you are positive that you will have an IC in the car when you install the kit. That way you don't have to go get a BC right away. See also (probably not) if they will cut a couple bucks off the price if it doesn't come with stage I pipe. I warn you, know what you're doing before you figure what you are doing. Putting a 1g,supra, or starion IC in takes fabrication and knowledge of what's going on. If you remotely don't think that you can not cut and weld or get something to fit, just save more money and get the stage II.

ya, just get custom press-bent intercooler piping for a 1g smic. the entire job cost $280 for me, $200 for labor and piping, $80 for the smic off of ebay. oh yeah, i got a new icon. 'tis the season.