Sidepipe evolution

[indianamoon]

Always preferred the look of the street cobras, but the one that came my way wasn’t. Removed the roll bar a few years back and now it’s time to do something about the side pipes. These pipes are rusted, dented, have the normal 4 pipes coming thru the body that always collect a bunch of stuff, and most importantly, are WAY too quiet.

Didn’t want the bodywork and paint needed in order to go under-car exhaust, so decided to fab a replacement set of side pipes and paint flat black. Bought a nice used set on here and will modify them. Cut ‘em up, shortened the collectors as much as I could, bought a couple of stainless mandrel bends, some proper isolation bushings, and had at it.

[indianamoon]

I cut the 4 exhaust tubes off the flanges, ground the welds, and removed the remnants of the tubes. Cut the collectors off the mufflers and attached them to the flanges, welded, and machined square both ends.
Figured the offset from the body and attached the proper mockup foam blocks to the mufflers and pipes with stretch wrap (love that stuff!!!!).

Bolted the isolation mounts to the frame to check fit.

And cut the mandrel bends after much double-checking and hand wringing.

[Jim Vander Wal]

Interesting construction, looks like it's coming along well.

Most people complain about too loud.

Jim

[indianamoon]

Not looking for too loud, existing sidepipes are very quiet,

[indianamoon]

For some reason, I was unable to add pics to an album or create a new one, so finally got back to it and uploaded the rest of the pics to Imgur and here is the end of the job. Severely shortened and rewelded collector and flange. New mount tab welded on to existing modified bracket. Semi finished product on the welder ready for the heat shield. Milling the inner and outer radii on the stainless steel heatshield mounting blocks. Drilling and tapping the mounting blocks

[indianamoon]

Here is the new pipe bolted on and ready for the heat shield fitting. I couldn't find any reasonably priced heat shields so decided to make my own. Bought a polished stainless steel section of 5 inch exhaust tubing and cut to length. Figured the best way to split it was with a regular circular saw using a steel cutting blade. Made this fixture with the top board being a guide for the saw baseplate. Worked just like I knew what I was doing, lol. Next is a view of the first cut. Just turned it over, made another cut, and used the tiny little palm belt sander to deburr it. Drilling meant ordering a new long drill bit (knew there was a reason for keeping all that stuff that I never used when I sold the shop) Needed to make some sort of fixture to set the angle of the guards the same on both sides.

[indianamoon]

Bolted the heat shields to the mounting blocks that I had milled up for the test fit. Set them with the angle fixture and marked them with a fine felt tip pen. Set up on the welder Wish I could weld like I used to. The semi finished product. Thought about ceramic coating the pipes, but the hassle of building the crate and shipping AND the cost convinced me otherwise. My sandblaster powdercoats, but did not suggest that, talked to guys who had Ceracoated sidepipes and they weren't too happy with the results. Then I read about guys using Krylon high heat paint and there were fewer complaints about this than anything. And it's cheap!! Finished pics coming, late for breakfast.

[indianamoon]

Not nearly as flashy

[DanEC]

How does it sound?

[indianamoon]

Little louder than it was, but by no means deafening or even bothersome. I think that it has a deeper tone, probably because of the 3 inch pipe from the collector to the muffler. I have increased pipe size in the past and noticed a change on tome.

[Harpoon PV2]

Originally Posted by indianamoon

Little louder than it was, but by no means deafening or even bothersome. I think that it has a deeper tone, probably because of the 3 inch pipe from the collector to the muffler. I have increased pipe size in the past and noticed a change on tome.

"Noticed a change in tome." Is tome a Freudian slip? Cheers, Dennis

[indianamoon]

Good catch, I bow to greatness ��

[Harpoon PV2]

It kind of looks like a car that AC might of made during the final run of the AC289 Sport's! The molded hood scope, the brown top and the single side pipes. Very tasteful! Cheers, Dennis