Exhaust
I will try to refrain from punning this article to death. However, it will be difficult.
If you were wondering when these kids were going to start running the exhaust, your wait is over. Before we began, there was a bit of a checklist that we needed to accomplish. Install starter. Oil filter clearance. Brake booster clearance. Over or under the rear axle? Try to keep most of the system out of view.
With that list in mind, on we go.

Hey, look… Welder Series parts!  These are #21836 stainless flanges for 2-1/2″ tubing. The flange just slips over the tube – that’s great but the stainless Edelbrock mufflers we’re using are expanded to slip over the tube! I’m going to weld a flange to one side of each muffler.  It’s a good idea to plan the system like this before hand… where it’s going to separate, etc.

This is why it’s nice to have the flange slip over the tube – you can tig weld it on the inside and therefore don’t see anything on the outside!

Silent Moment of the Day #2: parting off the collector in the lathe. I don’t know why, but when something’s not round, it tends to look like it’s spinning a lot faster and more violently. I did this to tuck the first bend up by about 2″.

Producer Paul and Director Dorothy check out the progress.

If you have a mill handy, it’s a great way to square up the ends of the tubing.

Here’s the shortened collector in place.  I needed a small wedge to point the bend where I needed it to go.  In this picture, you can also see my ground cable running from a motor mount bolt to the insulator bolt.  I’ve run the rest of Ron Francis’ grounding kit, and there’s basically nothing grounded to the frame except headlights.  I’m grounded direct to the starter from the battery.

Here, we’re trying to achieve symmetry as much as possible. The first side is always the easy one! Now I know why some guys run single 3″…..  In this picture, you can see a few things that will sneak up on you: the angle of the bottom of the engine oil pan is tilted towards the drain, and the transmission pan is offset.

It took a bit of muscle to flip the car on to its side for this shot, but I hope you’ll agree it was worth it. We haven’t installed hangers yet, but they will go just in front of the flange at the muffler. This way, we can remove the rear section and the hangers will still support the front section.

Unless you’re one of the few 2′ tall street rodders, you’ll have a hard time seeing this exhaust.