December 29, 2006
I'm still working on it... progress is slow, but I'm still working on it. That's all that matters. The cast iron headers are back on. While I had them off I noticed that a slight amount of rust had started to form. That is after I sandblasted, acid dipped, and painted them with Eastwood exhaust paint, and never let them sit outside. So I decided to get them ceramic coated. The place I took them to only had two types of ceramic coating. The one I chose was supposed to be the best. It only comes in one color... flat dark gray. It looks ok and close to natural.
I ordered a stainless steel exhaust system from Kepich (http://kepichexhaust.com/). For those who are shopping for one, the cost was $780.00 shipped for the exhaust system. I later ordered six stainless steel muffler clamps and asked them to make me a 7/8 inch spacer to take the place of the missing heat exhange valve. That was another $100.00. When I got my spacer, I started working on installing the system. The first problem was the H pipe. The right side flange was twisted slightly so one of the holes in the flange didn't line up with one of the studs in the right header. With help from a friend, we managed to pry the flange far enough to get it over the studs, but after tightening the nuts, I noticed that the flange is in such a bind that the studs are leaning slightly. Since I am worried that the pressure might some day break the header, I have decided to take the H pipe off in the near future and figure out how to straighten the flange.
I figured while I have the H pipe bolted up, I would go ahead and mock up the rest of the system. To better understand my next problem, let me describe the pieces of the exhaust system. Starting from the headers, the first piece is an H pipe. There are two fairly straight pipes that come off the H pipe and go along each side of the driveshaft almost to the rear axle. From there there are two (one on each side) pipes that curve over the rear axle and then curve under the frame ending up on the out side of the frame just behind the back tires. The mufflers attach to the end of these pipes and that is the end. Each piece is flared on one end so they can fit over the previous piece. After trying to put the pipes together for a while and looking in my shop manual at pictures of the exhaust, I finally figured out that Kepich had flared the wrong end of the pipes that attach to the H pipe. I sent them pictures and they agreed that they had flared the wrong ends and said they would send me two new pieces on a specific day.
The new pieces showed up exactly when I expected them to, so I tried to put them on. They ran too closely to the driveshaft, so I looked at the shop manual and also an old exhaust pipe I had for a 62 Galaxie and figured out that they left out one bend in each piece of straight pipe. I took the pipes down to a local muffler shop and they put the bends where I thought they should be. I returned home and put the pieces on. They now looked right so I started to put the curved pieces on that go over the axle and out the side to the mufflers. The bends were not right on them also, so I went back to the muffler shop and had to have three existing bends bent a little more. I returned home and installed the pieces and it now fits pretty good and I am happy.
One thing to keep in mind if you decide to buy a pre bent exhaust system... it might not fit exactly perfect. I can see why, because they don't have the car right in front of them to make sure each bend is perfect. You may have to make a few trips to a muffler shop and cross your fingers that your bend estimates are correct.
