~KnuckleDuster~

I'm thinking I'll cut the exhaust flange in half with a band saw. With a straight edge cylinders 1-3 are level, and the 4-6 side is level. So by separating the header into two pieces they will be nice and flush being that the problem area is the high middle point. This won't put any stress on any of the other welds since I've already got the other connecting points separated and I'll end up with two mini headers so to speak. Looks like the Autech R32 had the exhaust flange separated in the middle. I wonder if it was to avoid warping issues.. The gap in the collector is right where two of the primary's come together, as long as a welder can get up inside it, it should only need a couple little tacks and shouldn't effect the flow. Ill try and snap a pic inside there. I've got to take it somewhere and see.

Came across some issues with this header I'm worried about. For starters I found a couple centimeter gap in the collector that didn't get welded. You can see the light shining through it here. Do you guys think a welder can still reach up inside there? Second issue is the flange isn't straight at all. There's a high spot in the middle so the two ends have a decent gap. Does this thing need to be decked by a machine shop now? The flange is obviously more flexible than cast iron and should still seal is what I'm thinking but I'm not sure, I don't recall having this issue in the past. I would hate to go through all this trouble just to have the ends leaking. Edit: After contacting DEA Performance about the issues I found they were unwilling to do anything about it. They used the excuse that because I modified it they couldn't do anything. They didn't even say sorry. Pathetic really. I would stay away from them and find another source or just have one made locally.

I love hunting for old bottles. I wish old stuff was easier to find out here on the west coast.

Same thing 1.5

So I haven't been driving the car for the past couple weeks because the factory rear exhaust hanger is hanging on by a thread now. Probably just from the weight of the bigger exhaust system and overall age. I bought a flex pipe to have welded in so it will cut down on the vibrations and other stresses, not sure how big of a deal it is on a RWD motor that isn't flopping around but seemed like a good idea at the time. Since the cars going to the exhaust shop again now, I figured I would try and shoehorn the auzzy made extractors in there. I figured it would be a 50/50 chance of fitting. After some measurements this is what had to be cut off to possibly make it fit. Thankfully it fit in there perfectly and I didn't have to cuss and put the old one back on. Now I just need to order up some new nuts and washers and I can bolt the ol girl in. The new unit is 11 pounds lighter than the cast iron manifold.

Well I've only driven the car hard in the twistys once since my alignment was completed, I keep starting the next project on my list rather than drive the thing lately. As I recall the previous set-up was slightly twitchy when turning on uneven ground. My last drive out with the new set-up was a big difference mostly from the addition of negative camber and a good alignment, turn in was amazing on tight low speed corners, the car rotated as if on rails. I didn't notice the wheel being twitchy and as a result didn't have to white knuckle grip the wheel. I initially just bought the bump steer spacers to gain back proper geometry of the FCA's. With the car being as low as it is the control arms were totally horizontal, the spacers give back a better angle closer to the factory design and eliminating the bump steer problems that can arise from being lowered.

Yeah I figured I would at least halt the cancer and keep an eye on it and if it gets worse go from there. Body work is kind of the last thing to happen to this project and I don't see it happening for quite some time. Hah I know. That's the beauty of a 43 year old car, the list of things to do never ends.

So the new alternator I bought turned out to be defective. When it arrived on my door step it looked like it had a 6 foot drop. Rather than attempt another one I decided to just get the old one rebuilt which actually saved me money in the long run. Here's the oem unit, new brushes & voltage regulator, everything all cleaned up. While I was waiting for the alt to get rebuild I decided to attack the one spot of rust I knew was there but have been avoiding. Just this little spot on the driver side floor.. Upon closer inspection the rust had grown under the sound deadening material and starting eating through the floor just a bit. Took the wire wheel and removed the rust scaling. Two coats of POR 15 And two coats of spray on truck bed liner. I know this probably isn't the most preferred method of dealing with rust like this but given my time frame and lack of work space this should be a decent quick fix to last me awhile.