Exhaust shop is an hour or so drive away from home. I want to put the headers on my 235 in my '54 chevy at home to make sure they fit well and save some money but will need to clamp on some flanges and maybe some of that flex tubing so i can drive to the exhaust shop. Local auto store didnt have flanges with a nipple on them. Where can i find those and does anyone have any advice on doing this?
Can't you find a muffler shop less than an hour away? You can get the flanges made up at any muffler shop. An auto parts store should be able to get them if there are no muffler shops in your town.
Straight pipe, 10 ft lengths, clamps, perf steel hangers, any old muf-fleurs! Point them out the back, or get a pair of 45*s and out ahead of the rear wheels.
Most real exhaust shops (not Midas or other chain places) will sell you some prebent sections and weld up a flange for you. It costs a small amount but figure out how you need the down pipes to be, have a local guy put them together, and get some straight sections and turndowns and used mufflers and clamp it all together underneath. It'll leak and sound like crap, but it's enough to drive it one time to get the real deal put on. I keep two three foot 2 1/2" sections of exhaust with two short glass packs welded on in the shed, and I use those as temporary exhaust when I need to move a in progress car around Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
When I had dual pipes made for my Fenton headers at a muffler shop, 1/2 hour of freeway miles away, my old-time biker friend said to just drive there without pipes and open headers. But the 235 even with short straight pipes and no muffler is already deafening at freeway speeds, which my friend knew very well....hahaha Instead I drove there with the single pipe and brought the headers and gaskets and installed them in their shop with my tools and then they made the dual pipes. They are original Fentons and I knew they would fit. If it isn't a super busy shop, they may allow you to do that as well. Years later with my new 261, I just got a one year AAA membership with free towing, which was cheaper than flexible tubing I had no other use for. The muffler shop was much closer that time, but I didn't want to break in the fresh rebuilt 261 without pipes/mufflers, as I still had good neighbors left and right and close at the time.
Bolt on a cheap muffler to the header flange and head out,If it stinks inside the cabin wear a resperator and stay away from speedbumps .Not the safest solution but will get you there,or just run open header and be light on the throttle.
You can run the 235 without a muffler, it will just bark when you ease off the gas quickly. I have tacked together some old bits of pipe from the scrap bin (with sheetmetal screws and muffler bandage), and stuck the exit end out of the side of the car so's i could get it to the exhaust shop.You'd be surprised how quiet those Chevy 6's can be.
I did these last week and then took them to two local shops that supposedly do this kind of work. One said they were to difficult the other gave it a try.: Could not get it. Anyway I think I will buy all the S/S tube and fittings and weld them up myself.
I'd drive down there using the throttle sparingly. No chirp...no worries. If you feel you need something, flex pipe is likely cheaper than pvc, and smoke less
I by J bends and straight pieces over the web and weld away! My local shops coukdnt even make me the flair for a stock manifold they lost the dies lol Went to the junk yard and found some usable pieces Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Are you serious? PVC is for mocking up the headers and then taking the PVC patterns to the muffler shop to have them build....am I really explaining this?!
Don't knock the PVC exhaust pipe, works great, and it is really easy to bend once it catches fire Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
A friend of mine bent up a pattern out of brake line. Put it in the back of his truck and took it to the local independent muffler shop down the road and had em bend up some pipe. Worked like a champ.
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