I didn't much care for the job that a professional shop did back in the spring, axle hit, and the cheap flanges they used kept vibrating loose, wasn't mandrel bent, and a few of the bends were creased making a huge restriction, they were 2.5".
So I got a 2.5" mandrel bent universal kit and a 3" X-pipe kit from Jegs..and started after the 3"cats which bolt right at the end of the LTs and thru a 3" X-pipe, then it necks down to 2.5" to go over the axle and thru Dynatech straight thru split flow muffs. All mandrel bends!
My ground clearence is 1/2" better than the professional shops job at the 2 lowest places and the axle clearence is 1.5" more than their crappy job!
My first time welding exhuast pipe, but it was pretty easy and most of the joints I made slip fit with a handy pipe end expander I had.
If the bend in the kit was not the right angle, I had to notch the corner and bend it over just abit and then weld it back up..had to do that in only 3 bends and the passenger side from top of the axle to the muffler was a little tricky.
I used heavy duty V-band clamps on the up side going over the axle so the mufffs can easily be disconnected in case the fuel tank has to be dropped.
I spent a total of about 20 hours on it.
Here's the pics...

 

Make me one please. Looks damn good.

 

Awesome job! It appears that there is a lot of welding splatter... did you use one of those 120 volt self shielding MIG welders?

-B

 

Hobart 220v wire feed with 75%argon 25% CO2..not the best thing for this but works fairly well. I'm not the best welder by any means, but I did build the entire garage the car is in, some welds I amazed myself at how good they looked while others did splatter alot, especially on the tacks where I couldn't reach very well.
I tacked everything together on the car then removed it and welded it up completely.

 

Sweet! You have access to 220! Also I was wondering what type of cats you're using and how is ground clearance?

-B

 

Those are Pypes mini cats go down about 1/2 the page http://www.pypesexhaust.com/mufflers.html
As for ground clearence, my car is not lowered and here is an old pic of the OLD setup, the bend in the right side of the pic would occassional scrap lightly and my new setup has 1/2" more clearence so I'm not expecting it to hit anymore.


hey if you have a breaker box on your house, you just take the positive wire off of 2 breakers from opposite sides of the box if there's 220 going in..and combine those 2 wires into 1 plug and you have 220 v

 

Very nice work.

 

hows it sound

 

I haven't fired it up yet..was also in the middle of fixing a grinding noise in the timing chain area and was waiting on a part when I started this..I got the part and am about 1.5 hrs away from firing it up and taking it for a spin..I'll try to get a vidoe wmv of it. It had true duals on it before so I'd expect it to sound the same with the same muffs on it, but I still need to get a sound clip.

 

Looks good Very similar to how I did mine and about the same amount of time. I did the two cats also, then gutted them when I realized the ones I bought sucked The biggest difference between mine and yours are the area after the X... I ran the pipes side by side at an angle to better clear the ground and it clears the driveshaft with the car in the air or on the ground. Pain to clearance all the small stuff but I wouldnt trade it for another now!

...well that and mine ends at the axle. Night and day difference to a single pipe! I always had this exhaust turbulence at 2400 RPM and a gurgle where I'd just feel the motor drop off in power and the sound got annoying with LT's, Y and borla... and the duals are quieter than my borla too with bullets!

Oh yeah, and while I'm at it, let me say this... stainless steel pipe is a BIOTCH to weld with a 220 and stainless rod. Next time I'll go with regular steel.

 

This is that aluminized steel stuff and every cut with a cut off saw leaves a butt load of the aluminum burred around the edge so you have to use a bench grinder to smooth every cut on the outside and then an air dremel and grinding stone to get the burrs off the inside of the pipe at the cut.
My welder has 5 power settings, I did most of it on #2 when there was a slip fit, probably why so much splatter too, and then used the lowest #1 on any butt welds and to fill in any tiny holes.

 

K, got a sound clip/mpg of it, also shows how it sits in relation to the ground, quality of the video is poor so I'd have enough room to upload it...its 1.4M..the clear vid was 21M.

http://hometown.aol.com/onebadwskier...dual-sound.mpg

I drove it on the roughest street around and no rattles either!

 

try photobucket...they allow bigger videos

 

damnit man that sounds good,,,great job on the fabricating

 

looks nice....i wouldnt even attempt to go over the axle....im a dumper! lol