[Aussie Mike]

There's not just the price of the cats to knock off there's also the labour and materials for the baffles and flanges.

I figure they would end up being about $700-800 the pair, maybe less.

I'm not a big fan of chrome on this type of structure. When they electro plate something they put an electical charge through it and dip it into a tank of electrolyte solution. The charge flowing between the part and an anode of chromium pulls molecules of chromium from the from the anode and adheres them to the surface of the part. This works great on simple shapes but when you get angles and crevices the oposing fields in the sides of the valley don't allow the chromium to get to the root of the valley or crevice. This means you will end up with little or no chrome in the gaps between the header pipes leading to rust down the track.

There are some good plating shops out there that can do a good plating job on this type of stuff but I still worry about the longevity of it.

I think the best bet is polished stainless steel for a shiny chrome finish on this kind of part. I think I could do some cosmetic stainless pipes but I'd have to have a bit of an experement with how to do it.

Cheers