New exhaust issues
 

Now that I'm up and running I want to get my Catalina's exhaust taken care of. The guy that owned this Catalina must of had a blind guy with no arms weld this crap together. It is extremely low and when I pull in and out of my driveway I bottom out. I also bottom out when going over a bumpy road.

I have the car in to get the exhauat looked at and I'm told that 2 1/4 pipe wont fit over the crossmember and when they redo the exhaust it wont be much higher that what it is now.

Anybody ever have dual exhauat run on a 63 that wasnt dragging on the ground?

They want $350 to bend up the pipes. Any input would be appreciated.

Headers or manifolds?
Does Pypes or Ram Air Restorations have a system for 63 fullsize, ideally with a X crossover?

On my 65, I have RARE's long branches with their 3" head pipe and X crossover, then 2.5" intermediates, stainless Ultraflows and 2.5" Pypes tailpipes. I did have to ditch the factory trans crossmember for one taken from a 72 Bonneville, slightly modified for fit. It had more distance between the humps, gave more exhaust pipe clearance.

That is crazy stuff. I have only 2" duals on my '63 wagon run above the crossmember, but there is at least 1 1/2 - 2" between pipes, the cross member and the floor. Stock manifolds. Should be no problem for a competent shop to get them above the crossmember. My tranny would scrape before the pipes.

Here are a couple of Pics.

Shouldn't be a problem, I had 2.25" pipe running over the crossmember on both my 63's with slim-jims.

You might want to consider another shop. It's amazing how some places have no idea how to work on our cars. The first exhaust I had put on my car was so messed up, I had to go to another place and have it replaced entirely. They went so far as to alter my rear control arms because they couldn't bend the pipes right. I was ready to kill after I saw what they did. Second shop got it right.

Well its good to hear that it can be done, just a matter of finding the right person for the job. I will shop around this week and see what I can come up with. Anybody know of a good shop in southestern WI that does good exhaust work?

I'd avoid any of the big chain muffler shops, and look for one of the "low-rider" style shops you might find in the lesser desirable part of town.

I had some work done, not on my Pontiac, but on a Bel-Air I used to have. It seems as if they liked the car, and wanted to do a good job on it, at an honest price.

I assume they would respond to your Pontiac the same way.

Good Luck,

MK

I have manifolds on the car.

Try Wisconsin Muffler on Janesville Road. Gene and another guy there can do it, I'd bet. It should fit.

Thanks! I'll call them tomorrow.

One year I needed new duals for four of my cars...all of them got manifold to tailpipe systems added, and I supplied Walker 17747 (highly recommend these for your '63, BTW) and I took them to four different places to gauge their work / prices.

By far, the BEST work was from Mike's Automotive, he's at 102 North Chicago Avenue, South Milwaukee, WI 53172 (so he's even close-ish to you).

I concur with Engine-Ear, Mike's does good work. Didn't know that he had the pipe bending capabilities, etc.

Thanks for the info about Mikes. I will stop by there later this week.