A cheap CAI alternative

Ok I'm wanting a few opinions on this idea I decided to go through with. A chrome aluminum pipe at autozone for air intake costs about 44 bucks. Outrageous, right? Well what I decided to do was goto the hardware store and I found thin aluminum pipe that is used for air conditioning. They had galvanized steel which is more durable, but aluminum is supposed to keep the heat out better. Well anyway, they had straight pipes, elbows, etc, it was awesome. I spray painted em and ran a pipe with an elbow leading straight into the driver fender and I have the filter right behind the innder fender cover. Now it's true ram air, and not just short ram which can actually decrease hp. The only disadvantage to this cheap alternative is how flimsy the pipe is. You have to be VERY careful while installing or removing it because it dents easily. But, considering the alternative I think it works great. Anyway I was kinda wondering if anyone else has done this or if they like the idea or not. It only cost me maybe 15 bucks btw, I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

i dont know if bigbird still has it but, he was the king of "cheap" intake alts made out of dryer hose. :D

I would wait for him to respond, i just bought a AEM CAI on ebay new with filter for $115 shipped, and will be installing this weekend hopefully.

I wanna see this. I was interested in doing something like this myself.

What size pipe did you use? You should post some pictures. Or even a DIY!

yeah i did...all i used was 3" dryer tubing from a home depot. but its gotta be the tin stuff that is malible yet strong. put a filter on it and secured it in the fender and it all cost me like 30 bucks...and like 25 0f that was the filter.

this was a thread i did on it when i had it on my gen 4.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=209765&highlight=DIY+CAI