piercer

Does anyone know of a company that makes a 2 1/2" true dual mandrel bent exhaust kit for our Vettes? Ive done a lot of searching,but came up empty The previous owner mismatched a lot of parts on this car,and I'm trying to straighten it out.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks
Randy

Gordonm

No. I looked for a long time. I finally went to someone who does custom work. Could not be happier. It fits perfect and they did a great job. Go find someone who specializes in exhaust and have them weld you up a system

piercer

Thanks for the reply,Gordonm.

Unfortunately,there's no one local who can mandrel bend. There is a big difference in flow. I noticed it when I went for 2.5 pipe bent to 2.5 mandrel on my '86 SS Monte Carlo.

Any other ideas,anyone?

vetteonr

Try MidAmerica at http://www.madvet.com :thumbs: It seems they have true dual kit for just about any C3. :cool: :yesnod:

GDaina

Most muffler shops don't have the equipment for mandrel bending...the cost is prohibitive. Tube bends are restrictive compared to Mandrel bends...

piercer

Tried them. No dice...Thanks anyway,vetteonr.

piercer

Agreed

Wonder If I could find sopme reasonably priced mandrel bent tubing,and fab something up....Hmmmm.

PRNDL

Gordon, tell me again (and everyone else) the name of the shop you used in Trenton ? I need to give them a call. While I'm at it... might replace the flowmaster 50s as well. MJ

found it... mufflex. your guy is Denny. They have a great website now and very impressive pics of customers cars...
for example (pic not included here) :
"Above are pictures of a 750HP C-5 Corvette with 3 1/2 Dual Exhaust
This car is using Borla SS Mufflers and Corsa GTR Tips"


[Modified by MNJack, 1:43 PM 3/15/2004]

Stewart's74

http://www.stainlessworks.net :yesnod:

GDaina

Stwart, I'd be leery recomending Stainless Works....Mr. JCL of the baffle fame also knows this individual, and Jim has personal experience how SW totally screwed up the custom made headers for this guy's 66 w/502, and factory side pipes...the headers were bent wrong, and JCL spcified the side tubes for the spirals to be 3" diameter, they made them 2.5" the fit was wrong, the guy had to make spacers, not to mention they had the 66 for over 9 months.

Stewart's74

Woah, thats good info. Thanks for the heads-up George.

Gordonm

Denny at Mufflex does great work. Small shop but good work. Take a look at his album of cars and some of the work he has done when you are there. Pretty impressive stuff. He seems to really know what he is doing.

piercer

Thanks for all your help,fellas.

That's too bad about Stainless Works...I don't see many other options.

You know it's funny,there's a bout a billion places that have mandrel bent exhaust kits for G-bodies,and so far none for C3s! :confused:

70454

Did you check Allen's exhaust?

piercer

Nope,hadn't seen that site yet. It seems that all that is available are high priced repros of original exhaust systems. I don't mind spending for quality,but I'm looking for a high performance aftermarket exhaust since I'm doing more of a restification than a restoration.

Keep 'em coming guys!

Thanks

BacaBill

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=42610
This is the same system I just put on my '79 w/out cats. It looks & sounds great. I had a local muffler shop weld it up except for the muffler "cans", that way, I can swap them out for something quieter or louder as I need or want to. He put in an extra pair of hangers about mid--section of the pipes. It's tight to the undercar, & perfectly spaced thru the crossmember holes. Best part, he only charged me $50 for the labor. Get a new trans mount & the dual "transmounted" hanger when you buy. I'm still waiting on my neighbor to come over so I can take some pics.

GDaina

nice system, but not mandrel bent...don't know if a mandrel bent is commercialy available, think Stainless Works may be the only option, but I wouldn't go near them if they were the last place on earth.

gkull

Your best option is just an exhaust shop. I did see your year. My 79 had a auto tranny cross member with two holes for true duals. I modified it for straight back from the header collectors. The original holes were to close to the auto tranny.

Look back through the archives to modded cross members and some companies sell them.

piercer

Agreed. I noticed that also.

That's two strikes against Stainless Works.

piercer

...Yeah.It's looking like mandrel isn't gonna happen. :sad:

*D'OH* Didn't even think about the crossmember! The car had stock manifolds with Tuffy/Midas pipe bent 2 1/4" duals and flowmasters(no cats-previous owner told the muffler shop it was a '74,and it's too old for emissions testing). I hacked that off when I swapped in the freshened up th400 and new converter. As good as the stock manifolds flow,I really think it was choking off performance with the mods done to the intake side of the engine.

Thanks for the tip!