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Exhaust System-Rear
In the past, we (and probably you) have experienced the frustration of the typical exhaust shop butchery, bad workmanship, and ugly press style bends in the tubing. Even the best fabricators seem to do a less than perfect job. When we found out what Magnaflow had to offer, we got excited and decided we could easily fabricate our own custom exhaust system. Not only does Magnaflow have awesome polished stainless mufflers, they also now have a tubing kit that includes straight, 90’s, 45’s, and 180 degree pieces of tubing. Enough in most cases to do the entire project from the motor to the back bumper.
Features include mandrel bends (way cool) and, of coarse, the material is stainless, which will polish up real nice to match the mufflers. Mandrel bends are different than muffler shop press bends. Mandrel bends are totally smooth and follow the diameter through the bend (no kinks or wrinkles). Press bends are ugly and usually leave a dent in the place where the bend was done.
Our construction starts in the rear since we are working on that end. The Dutchman 12 bolt “IRS” has an optional billet exhaust hanger that will allow us to route the 2 ½” diameter pipes under the center section. With the aid of some masking tape, we are able to mock up and hold our tube pieces in place so we can get a visual of how the system will look before we tack & weld the sections together. Boy, don’t those mandrel bends look awesome?
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Exhaust System-Mid
Moving to the front side of the housing, we measured and cut two sections of 45 degree prebent tubing to give us the needed transition from the muffler exit past the bottom of the housing. Note the custom muffler prop. It just so happens that the Magnaflow muffler box placed on top of a wheel skate gave us the correct height for our muffler mock up. At this point in the game, we are still using masking tape to hold our pieces together. Two reasons: 1st, our tube polisher told us that he wants to polish the shorter sections BEFORE they are welded together (easier for him to handle which ends up costing us less); 2nd, we can make changes as needed as the plan comes together. Sure we could tack the pieces, but it is easier to undo the tape than grind the tacks if an angle change or shorter cut is needed. Once we are satisfied with the design and flow of our stainless tube masterpiece, (we're doing one side at a time) we will use the pieces to cut the other side-pretty smart, huh!
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Exhaust System-Front
Our goal with the front tubes is to keep them symetrical to the frame and center crossmember. This is complicated by the fact that the header collectors dump out at different locations and will require each side to be done custom. We started out by placing some 1/4" thick spacers on the frame rails to give the pre-polished tubes the needed clearance (you don't want the tubes to touch the frame in any place) and enable us to cut and fit the collector tubes to these horizontal muffler connector tubes. Once again, we are using the trusty blue masking tape for our initial mock up, and will send the shorter pieces to the polisher for a pre-polish. Builders note; This project is taking place at a two car garage. Boy do we wish we had a band saw and milling machine here, as many trips to the machine shop have taken place up to this point; cutting, milling slight angles, fussing, fooling, getting carried away-oh well, we're still havin fun!
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