Well, I've been on this forum for quite a while now, and I've never really introduced myself. So, I figured I'd do a little introducing in my custom exhaust thread! My name is Darin, I'm from Texas, and currently attending Texas Tech University. Yes, I am 24 and still in college; I took a good 3 years off from school, then went to a community college again, then made my return to Texas Tech.
Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the exhaust. My old exhaust had about 320,000 miles on it, and it was really starting to show it's age. I thought about buying an aftermarket exhaust, but I wasn't really in a position to drop 5 bills on something decent. I thought about buying a cheapo ebay stainless steel exhaust, and throwing a different muffler on it or something, but ended up deciding to build my own exhaust with the help of my brother.
So, I bought a 2.5" catalytic converter, 4ft of tubing, and a glasspack from Summit; and I bought two 90 deg bends, two 45 deg, two 18 deg, and six flanges from Columbia River Mandrel Bends.
Originally, the plan was to take the car to my uncle's shop, throw it on the lift and start fitting things, then weld it there at his shop. Well, my uncle smokes bbq on the weekends, and he puts his big pit in the stall where his extra lift is. He really didn't want us to move it, but he said we could still use his welder. So, I said screw it, I'll remove the exhaust from the car, and we'll carry it up there in a different vehicle, make the new exhaust mimic the old, and test fit it. The best laid plans.......
The welder must've had some kind of damage in the lead, because the wire kept getting stuck in the lead, and it kept taking longer and longer to get the wire to feed. So, frustrated, my brother says "this isn't going to work." And, I forgot to mention that I was planning to leave home to come back to college within days of this occurrence.
At this point, I said "crap, time for plan b. I'll put the exhaust back on the car, and take it up to the exhaust shop in town, and pay to have it put together." I called the exhaust guy, and he quoted me 2 hrs at 60/hr. Shit, oh well, I had to get it done. So, I get an appointment and take it to the guy. He asked if I had any gaskets, and I said "I was hoping you would have some." He said "Uhh, nope. Why don't you walk over to Autozone and see if they have any." So, I did, and they didn't. Then I walked a little further to O'reilly's, and success. I took my new gaskets back to the exhaust place, and the guy was standing next to my car. He says "You know what, I don't want to do it. It's gonna take at least twice as long as I quoted. You just got too much going on down there and too many moving parts under the car. And even if we could agree on a price, I don't want to spend the time on it." Blah, blah, blah. So I leave and call my brother.
On to plan A1. My brother tells me we can mock it up at the house, then he'll take to work and weld it after hours. I've really got to give props to my brother, because he really helped me out of a jam here, and he's just a great brother in general.
Now, on to the pictures. And, sorry about the epic novel.
I actually have more pics, but I don't want to exceed the limit....
It's not in the pics, but we actually had to tweak the tail section. Tomorrow I'll get a pic of it on the car.
Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the exhaust. My old exhaust had about 320,000 miles on it, and it was really starting to show it's age. I thought about buying an aftermarket exhaust, but I wasn't really in a position to drop 5 bills on something decent. I thought about buying a cheapo ebay stainless steel exhaust, and throwing a different muffler on it or something, but ended up deciding to build my own exhaust with the help of my brother.
So, I bought a 2.5" catalytic converter, 4ft of tubing, and a glasspack from Summit; and I bought two 90 deg bends, two 45 deg, two 18 deg, and six flanges from Columbia River Mandrel Bends.
Originally, the plan was to take the car to my uncle's shop, throw it on the lift and start fitting things, then weld it there at his shop. Well, my uncle smokes bbq on the weekends, and he puts his big pit in the stall where his extra lift is. He really didn't want us to move it, but he said we could still use his welder. So, I said screw it, I'll remove the exhaust from the car, and we'll carry it up there in a different vehicle, make the new exhaust mimic the old, and test fit it. The best laid plans.......
The welder must've had some kind of damage in the lead, because the wire kept getting stuck in the lead, and it kept taking longer and longer to get the wire to feed. So, frustrated, my brother says "this isn't going to work." And, I forgot to mention that I was planning to leave home to come back to college within days of this occurrence.
At this point, I said "crap, time for plan b. I'll put the exhaust back on the car, and take it up to the exhaust shop in town, and pay to have it put together." I called the exhaust guy, and he quoted me 2 hrs at 60/hr. Shit, oh well, I had to get it done. So, I get an appointment and take it to the guy. He asked if I had any gaskets, and I said "I was hoping you would have some." He said "Uhh, nope. Why don't you walk over to Autozone and see if they have any." So, I did, and they didn't. Then I walked a little further to O'reilly's, and success. I took my new gaskets back to the exhaust place, and the guy was standing next to my car. He says "You know what, I don't want to do it. It's gonna take at least twice as long as I quoted. You just got too much going on down there and too many moving parts under the car. And even if we could agree on a price, I don't want to spend the time on it." Blah, blah, blah. So I leave and call my brother.
On to plan A1. My brother tells me we can mock it up at the house, then he'll take to work and weld it after hours. I've really got to give props to my brother, because he really helped me out of a jam here, and he's just a great brother in general.
Now, on to the pictures. And, sorry about the epic novel.
I actually have more pics, but I don't want to exceed the limit....
It's not in the pics, but we actually had to tweak the tail section. Tomorrow I'll get a pic of it on the car.
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