My '67 Fleetside C10 renew

[jlsanborn]

Trying to get this thing back on track, get on a little roll here! I got the shop looking good, pile of firewood and a couple cylinders filled. I ordered up a "builder kit" from Columbia River Mandrel Bends. 2-1/2" aluminized stuff. I also got one of them expander dealios from HFT to make slip joints. Just got started last night. Using hose clamps to help mark the tubes for cuts on the radiuses and also to hold them together as I mock it all up. Works great, you can twist the joint to where you likey then tighten the clamp. I'll tack together what I've gotten done here then move to the other side, then build a balance pipe.

Mcbassin showed us how to make perfect ports in the cross member but I don't have a hole saw that big or a motor that'd turn one. So, blue-tip and a burr. Still scratchin my head a bit on the back half. Sure wanna go over the axle but dunno if that's really gonna happen.

[jlsanborn]

few more...

[Vic1947]

Good looking start there, John. Mandrel bends look so much nicer than the muffler shop bends. I stopped at the rear axle on CRLS due to space limitations from the rear mounted fuel tank. But on the silver truck I was able to run it all the way back to the roll pan. You may want your exit as far back as possible. Those Flowmaster (?) cans look like they may operate in the upper dB range.

[jlsanborn]

Junior put the same "mufflers" on Punching Bag. Here's a clip of those from that thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf-yQvmeT28

He's got headers, about two feet of pipe then the 10's right under the seat. The highway drone is ridiculous. When it's running in the driveway, sh1t falls off the walls in the house - really. I'm hopeful that mine won't be quite as raw

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on the exhaust. Keep the pictures coming

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Junior put the same "mufflers" on Punching Bag. He's got headers, about two feet of pipe then the 10's right under the seat. The highway drone is ridiculous. When it's running in the driveway, sh1t falls off the walls in the house - really. I'm hopeful that mine won't be quite as raw

When I was that age, that would have been just right. Got stopped in my '69 GTO once by our local Highway Patrol officer. He kept walking around the car and finally shook his head and said, "This thing is just loud all over." Took all I had to maintain a straight face and say, "Well, that's the way it came from the factory." Which was true for about 5 feet of the exhaust system.

[Average Joe]

Nice work and thanx for sharing the hose clamp tip!

[Bomp]

Oh man am I glad to see ya getting back at it.
Now Im really gettin motivated.

[jlsanborn]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very nice work on the exhaust. Keep the pictures coming

Thanks Mike, you WAY inspired me on the exhaust setup. Only wish I could machine the bits you made and TIG the whole thing in stainless! Yours is stellar. Appreciate you checking in.

Originally Posted by Vic1947

When I was that age, that would have been just right. Got stopped in my '69 GTO once by our local Highway Patrol officer. He kept walking around the car and finally shook his head and said, "This thing is just loud all over." Took all I had to maintain a straight face and say, "Well, that's the way it came from the factory." Which was true for about 5 feet of the exhaust system.

I still feel like a boy Vic. I catch myself trying to talk "sense" into the runt but I'm really pretty damn proud and LOVE how his little beater sounds. It's friggen fast too. Kinda feels like you should wear a helmet.

The builder kit I got is awesome. You'd for sure appreciate the quality. Bends are spot-on, de-burred perfectly and lightly coated with oil. The finish looks perfect and they practically gift wrapped each piece. I got the box one day after I ordered. Couldn't be happier for under $200 and I'll have left overs!

Originally Posted by Average Joe

Nice work and thanx for sharing the hose clamp tip!

Thanks Joe! It isn't science but it's working for me.

Originally Posted by Bomp

Oh man am I glad to see ya getting back at it.
Now Im really gettin motivated.

Believe me I'm glad too, just hope I can keep it going for a while and get this thing looking more like a truck again. Looking forward to another Steiner update!

Not much tonight, didn't light the fire until after 8:00. Got some kool tools off the brown truck, tacked up the pieces I fitted last night and started on the passenger side. Little tweaking left on that, then I can start on the tee's and the balance pipe.

[Low Elco]

Good Lookin' stuff, John! Glad you got Knuckles' crap outta the way and you're back on the horse! (Did a bit of the same over the weekend!) That kit does look like a deal.

[Bennett68C10]

Nice job on the exhaust, looks really good

[Dean'smeanmachine]

looking Sweeet

[jlsanborn]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate you all crawling along here with me. NFL Playoffs put a real ding in progress this weekend but I did manage to move forward some on Saturday. Finished fitting up the passenger side pipe through the cross member and started on the H pipe. I'm coping the balance pipe to the side of the header pipe rather than trying to make the true "tee" intersection here. Once coped, I'll mark the header pipe and cut the weird shaped hole out, leaving the line for an "overlapped" kinda joint as apposed to a real miter. Just didn't see any need to fuss it in perfect here without a badsaw. My jig-saw and a metal blade work perfect - buttah. Very minimal filing to get it nice and tight.

Go Hawks!

[jlsanborn]

Did a little more tonight... Better pics than my yellow phone photos too. Fit up the balance pipe and got it all tacked. Marked my length at the cross member and pulled the whole "H" out. Traced out my coped joints and pulled it apart. I'll cut the holes, weld all my butt joints and throw it back in to re-tack the balance pipe. Then I'll pull it back out to weld that out.

[jlsanborn]

Few more...

[Vic1947]

Excellent fit there, John. Those joints should weld up really nice. Shaping up to be a free flowing exhaust. Have you figured out yet how far back you're going to run the pipe?

[Bomp]

Nice work. That fit up is Slick!

[jlsanborn]

Thanks guys! Sure wish I was welding like you two. Nice, nice stuff outta your shops. Me -->

Got the H-pipe done. Can't say enough about that little jigsaw. I bet I could do five of these on one blade (Milwaukee). It's like a laser! I wire-wheeled my joints on the outside to get the coating off but it's still nasty stuff to weld. Splatters like crazy and it's really smokey. My little Hobart only has 1,2,3,4 and analog wire speed. Loaded with pretty big wire too but I think it turned out well. It'd run continuous but trying to lay 1" beads end to end while I repositioned looked like hell, plus I was blowing holes here and there, so I switched to zap, zap, zap.

So, I've got some hangers to fab, try that expander dealio and build some offsets to my "muffs". More hangers then.... I'd sure love to go over but I think I'll turn down (take the low road), splayed out a tad. In the next photo I still lack the 1" block for pinion angle tuning that'll yield the "traditional" 4.5/6" drop. There's zero load on the springs except the frame. I'm sure I'll need a C-notch. Bed wood contacts the frame rail there, so about 5" to work with. 2-1/2" pipe with 1" wood clearance only yields about a 1" notch with some wiggle room. Aside from mashing a larger tube down to a 1-1/2" thick oval and trying to blend that into 2-1/2" round, I just don't think it's happnin.

I've got that killer No Limit panhard rod that mounts at the axle centerline. That side will need a longer notch. I've also got his rear shock mounts that put the uppers behind where the notch will be. Makes it even harder to get the tailpipes where I want them and it's gonna have to be a stout notch to take the shock load.

Whew...

[jlsanborn]

Clearance shot... Stupid camera/tape angle, axle tube is about 5" from bottom of the frame and frame section is about 5" wide at that point. Should read about 0", 5", 10" with bed wood layin' on the frame right there.

[mcbassin]

Very clean work on the exhaust pipe fitment.

[jlsanborn]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very clean work on the exhaust pipe fitment.

Thanks Mike, you set a high bar in this department!

[jlsanborn]

Well tonight was quick. Built a couple offsets and broke my HFT pipe expander. I think the actual tooling will hold up but the nut and screw are China's finest lemme tell ya. Didn't even come close and I pulled the threads outta the nut.

[jlsanborn]

Got the pipes back to the muffs and I'm on the brink of going over. Mathematically it still just doesn't add up but it sure looks like I could pull it off. I'd have to notch the x-member just past the axle because of the panhard rod but I'll be A-O-K with that if I can squeeze them between the wood and the axle tube. I'm going to hold up here and build the 1" blocks to set my pinion angle. I'll then look at the c-notches and shocks.

[Low Elco]

Hrmmrm, I dunno. Maybe shorter mufflers? Looks good! I dusted mine with a 50 grit roloc on a zip sander. Welded up good. Keep it up!

[808_67C10]

That is some good lookin exhaust! Better than the $600 job I had done on mine and I though that was good!

Keep da pics comin bro!