Time for an update. Finally got the car over to a friend's place and onto a lift. To get a little more room to work, we cut up a 2x6 and screwed the pieces together into blocks. Used a floor jack to get the car off the ground then put the blocks on the lift pads … and up she goes. It will be so much easier working on a lift, than on the floor!
The plan is to set the muffler in place then determine how much to shorten the collector to get the head pipe to fit, then weld on the tabs for bolting the pipes together. The tricker part will be cutting and setting the location of the tail pipe and coming up with a rubber isolated tail pipe hanger.
There are a number of different options, hoping to find a way that does not involve drilling into the frame or if we need to, making the minimum number of holes. This will take a little while to get done, as our mutual work schedules make car time hard to arrange … but we will get it done. Can't wait to get the car on the road!
