roadthrills

NIce, where is your build thread? I recently started my '82 MSE.

Firechicken82

I've been following this 83 and your 82 MSE. I had a black and gold 4 speed 82 just like this 83. I love the early cars. I have an 82 now but there's nothing stock about it. I totally dig watching progress on these two cars.

kmcn47

i haven't started one yet, not much to report yet. have a few projects all going at once and machining school too. busy busy

wildjeff

iTrader: (1)

Adventures in Exhaust

The exhaust is done and installed. There are only 5 pieces to the exhaust, at least that I'm working on now. The catalytic converter, intermediate pipe, muffler and two tail pipes. This will be a quick job, a week tops I thought… nope. It took more then a month to get the exhaust done and installed.

The goal of this restoration is to remain true to originality. Since GM no longer makes the muffler, I had to fine one that looked correct and did not have any logos. Another issue I ran into was since my car has the H.O. engine it uses 2 1/2 inlet and outlet size for the pipes. This is a less common size. I bought a few mufflers that look the part in pictures but when I got them they had logos so back they went. I finally settled on the AP / EASTERN 3228. It has 2 1/2 inlet and outlet is the correct size and shape and only has a bit of generic text stamped on the top, which is not seen when installed.

The next issue I ran into is the tail pipes, again the 2 1/2 size issue came but I found the Dynomax tailpipes to have the correct hanger and a smooth bends. They also felt more substantial than some other brands I bought. However, they have an incorrect cutout at the tip of the tail pipe. I ended up cutting it to match. when i when to test fit I found out the driver side pipe I bought was manufactured to short. So I had to buy a second one. But they turned out good.

The Dynomax tailpips does not have the correct end cut but does have the correct hanger




After i cut the end it looks like it should



I decide to reuse my intermediate pipe. It was still solid but somewhere corroded. I cleaned it up however it did not look good, so I painted it. It turned out ok.

Here is the exhaust ready to be installed.




Fortunately, my catalytic convert is in good usable shape, so it just needed a good cleaning.

The exhaust is installed. This picture was taken before fastened the passenger side. There is a piece of wire holding it up just in case i needed adjust or take it down. I did have to remove the track bar to get the intermediate pipe which was a little worried about but its just a few bolts.