[Shiny]

Upholstery looks great! That must be rewarding for you.

I'll be interested to know how you like the mufflers...it's on my list.

Mike

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by Shiny

Upholstery looks great! That must be rewarding for you.

I'll be interested to know how you like the mufflers...it's on my list.

Mike

Thanks Mike! It's nice to get the Custom S to the 'good enough' point to enjoy driving it. I'll certainly let you know how the Jones mufflers work out and sound like.

Dennis

[SD455DJ]

I'm now going the path of a completely new exhaust system since after cutting off the internally rusted mufflers, I discovered the headpipes were only 2" O.D. in size and my new Jones straight through mufflers were 2.25" I.D. We ran down to the local auto parts store and bought some adapters for these pipe sizes, but it looked ridiculous to keep those puny headpipes, so I will use the Pypes 2.5" mandrel headpipes I originally ordered for Custom S last spring with the new Jegs 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust kit (555-30527) I just ordered. It's on sale for only 237.99 and is 409 stainless steel. This is a kit without mufflers and lists all A-bodies from '64 to '72, so a universal kit. We'll see how well it fits/works and I'm sure that it'll need a bit of cutting/welding to fit properly. We may retain the current 2 1/4" tailpipes since they do fit nice, have the proper turn-downs, and only some minor surface rust.

Dennis

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

I will use the Pypes 2.5" mandrel headpipes I originally ordered for Custom S last spring with the new Jegs 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust kit (555-30527) I just ordered. It's on sale for only 237.99 and is 409 stainless steel.

Note that 400 series stainless steel is less resistant to corrosion and can rust over time. 300 series stainless (like 304SS) is better, although more expensive.

Having said all that, for a car like this that will have only occasional use (and won't be driven in the snow and salt) the Jegs kit should last a very long time.

[SD455DJ]

Yep, thanks Stuart. The Pypes DGA10S down-pipes are also 409 SS, as are the Jones mufflers I bought a few weeks ago. The car will inevitably see some rain from time to time, but definitely, no winters or salt, so will flash rust I'm sure.

The Jeg's kit looks pretty decent for the price and I'll report back on the effort and surprises it will require for a good fit since it is basically a universal kit.

Dennis

[SD455DJ]

Since our power was still out from last Thursday’s storms, we couldn’t use the lift to put the Custom S in the air to work on the new exhaust. Also, the headpipe bolts in the manifolds wouldn’t come out, despite PB Blaster & heat, so we went with Plan 'C' for the exhaust system...which was back to replacing the old mufflers with new, but different DynoMax Super Turbo mufflers (#17732's) that have the 14" long (short) case with 2 1/4" inlet/outlet that are side/side. They fit better than the side/center #17731 DynoMax Super Turbo's, that we also had and tried, for some reason (also 14" long case w/ 2 1/4" inlet/outlet). The Jones Max Flow 1255's I bought earlier for replacements were too long when combined with the adapter pipes we had to employ to connect mufflers to the current headpipes and the original muffler hangers. We'll install the Jeg’s 2.5" mandrel bent system with the Pypes headpipes and Jones mufflers when we have more time and use of the lift. At least, for now, it has better flowing mufflers (that don't rattle & buzz) than it had. It's still quiet inside and has a nice authoritative tone at idle.

While the car was up in the air (about 18”), I took the opportunity to ‘restore’ the gray primer on the rear end, shocks, backing plates, trailing arms, etc. with good ol` semi-gloss black spray paint.

We also played car ‘dress-up’ by swapping the whitewall radials on the Custom S over to the ’69 Firebird, and the Firebird’s 14x7 Rally II’s with Wide Oval Redlines over to the Custom S. Oh, the fun never ceases!

Dennis

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Almost don't realize its a 4door with those R2's and Redlines

Read about you guys missing TA Nats due to storm complications.
Sorry all that happened .

[KSZR]

Neat cars!

For those of us that aren't great with a carb, where do some of you recommend sending a Q jet for rebuild?