[Tinker51]

One of mine broke just last week (5000 miles on the car) and it had the same gap you mentioned when it broke. Oddly enough the gap increased when the pipe got hot. I smoothed the ends and welded it back up. If it breaks again I will put a reinforcing strap across the area. I decided to take the pipe off the car to perform this. It would be just my luck to screw up the paint while welding close to the body. All the hardware can be reached through the cutout in the side of the body but it helps to have the car up on jack stands. A lift would make things easy but ours was occupied by another vehicle. I just looked at the page listed in the post above mine. If I have to repair it again that was exactly what I was going to do.