Exhaust Pipes and Mufflers

I knew I wasn't interested in paying the high price for anything remotely close to stock. After doing a bunch of measurements I finally decided that the 12" glass packs from Van Pelts Sales (www.vanpeltsales.com - Part Number FMT-1218G). They measure 12" for the muffler and are 18" from end to end. Total cost $35 per muffler. I bought 4 of them to give the Pantera exhaust that double tip look sticking out of each side.

Next step was to turn the two mufflers into one. I simply welded them together and made my own Y-pipe using various pieces of stainless steel pipe I have around. Here's a shot of the muffler assembly.

After positioning the muffler in place, at the angle I wanted it to sit on the car I was able to start to see how I needed to bend up a piece of pipe to connect the muffler to the header. Immediately I found that the collector on the header was sticking too far back for me to make something fit. Out came the cutoff tool for some modification to the header. Here's what the new collector looks like.

Here's what it looked like before a bit of grinding and welding.

Then came a bunch of cutting, bending and welding. It took about 10 or more cuts to get the pipe to zig zag to where it needs to be so that it goes from the header to the muffler. For all you purist out there, I know that the non-mandrel bends isn't as efficient, but I don't care. I just wanted to get this thing done and this was how I could do it on my own for VERY low cost. Here's a shot of the finished pipe off the car.

This series of shots shows the entire assembly on the car.

You can see that I used the original hanger in the stock location. Here's a shot from the back of the car with the exhaust completed.

Here's a shot of the back of the Pantera with both exhausts completed.

I have a set of chrome tips that I will install as I get closer to completing the car. Not a bad result for less than $200! Can't wait to hear it start up.