Motown

I plan on ordering those exact pipes here shortly for my NOS GM muffler. Im guessing no modifications will be needed for these pipes to fit correctly...?

botch1

Yep, No mods needed with the GM Muffler. Put everything together loose. Check for clearance with suspension. I jack car up with jack stands under the rear end to fit everything . Don't let the rear end hang down. JIM

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Hey Jim, the MF must be in a different position than the FM. The driver's side is almost right on. The passenger side is the one that needs a 3" extension for the Magnaflow.

I'm still not sure I'll keep the Magnaflow muffler or use one of my OEM ones.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

BTW, thanks Jim for helping find those Xcelerator tail pipes!

KMK454

Where did you buy them from?

chazman

iTrader: (4)

eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301873320480?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231846324013?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

PurelyPMD

iTrader: (3)

Shipping is more than the part!

Polo Z03

iTrader: (1)

Seems like the typical story for buying parts for our cars! LOL . .

Charlie,

Maybe this weather here will buck up and I can get to see this gem in person!

JT

iTrader: (1)

You might try their website directly:
https://www.carid.com

They are a sponsor here on ThirdGen and other sites like ours.

When I go directly to their site, even though the part is a few dollars more than eBay, the shipping price is half when I compare the two.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

I contacted CARid on eBay and had them combine shipping for both tail pipes. I think they ended up crediting me like $37 for the shipping of both.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Andy, swing by any time!

But I'm almost embarrassed to show you any of my stuff after your Z03 thread.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

Both out of stock.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Well, they better make some more!

I have a feeling these will be the new "go to" pipes for our cars.

eseibel67

Those are nice pipes. Mandrel bent elbows and correctly angled slash cut.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Pair of virtually new Magnaflow tail pipes.






Make offer.








Full report and pictures later....

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Lots of work done on the car yesterday!

The other night, while waiting for touch up paint to dry, I crawled underneath the car with my iPhone flashlight to look at the exhaust and decide what I wanted to do with it. The Magnaflow is a nice exhaust, but the tips are just not my style. I went to the attic and pulled down an NOS muffler and the factory exhaust I have that needs restoration. I decided that the factory system is what I REALLY want, but after about 30 minutes of scrubbing realized this will be a loooong project.

So I packed up a muffler and the tail pipes and went to see Todd at Medinah Muffler and talk about which way we should proceed.The issue here with trying to combine factory pieces with the Magnaflow system is the MF is stainless steel, the factory stuff is alumized steel. Dissimilar metals are hard to weld together.

In the end we decided to combine the MF tailpipes with the Xlerator tailpipes. Armed with pictures and measurements from my black hardtop, we moved forward. We spent the better part of a half an hour, moving, tweaking and repositioning the tail pipes until they were "just right".

Interesting to me is that the exhaust now has a different sound , just from the tail pipe resection. It now has a mellower note which I prefer. It almost sounds factory, but kicked up a few decibels.











I'll need to take those labels off and paint the stainless steel clamps silver so they're not as shiny, but that's it. Remember - measure three times and cut once.

So happy it's done!

IROCgiraffe

iTrader: (3)

those tips really do look grate on that car!

chazman

iTrader: (4)

And that's not all.

After a week of correcting paint blemishes, my friends came over to check out my exhaust and also help me bring that dull, orange peeled, factory paint to life. Some of the ASC painted surfaces actually looked almost matt.

The job goes a lot quicker with three guys working. We did Megs 105 with a wool pad followed by Megs 205 with a foam pad. It looks like a different car. It's really hard to appreciate in pictures, but the improvement is spectacular!




And now, the real detailing begins!

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Thanks!

Motown

The car is coming along nicely. Those tips look great. I see that they are mounted with the slash cut exactly parallel with the bottom of the bumper.

I will take note of that...

PurelyPMD

iTrader: (3)

Great work Charlie but a shame that such a low mile car could have so many issues.

In good hands now!

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Thanks guys.

My friends were saying that this car must be relieved to finally be home.


It's funny though, that every car has a certain thing that's good about it, which makes me want to step up the game on the others.

After being reminded at how flat the original finish of the head light pockets and louvers were from the factory on this car, I do believe I want to restore that back on my black '89 and yellow '85 with what we now know is 30 degree black.

DynoDave43

iTrader: (11)

Perfect! This is exactly what I've been wanting to do...add a Magnaflow cat-back, but run factory style tail pipes.

You bet....tailpipe termination angle has a lot to do with sound, be they pointed down, straight out, a trumpet-style tip like an Olds 442, etc.

B4C5.7

iTrader: (2)

The pipes look great Chazman, I like the stock tips.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, I'm so happy with the look and sound, that I put the other exhaust back in the attic.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Took it to it's first Illinois Camaro Club event today. We had about 50+ Camaros and 10 of them were 3rd gens. That's a big deal! For so long, I was the only 3rd gen. Now, look!

We had to move a few 1st and 4th gens to get this shot.

vinny R

That is an Awsome site!!! All those third gens lined up like that. Man you just don't see that around these parts.

PurelyPMD

iTrader: (3)

Nice Charlie!

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, I know. We might get the largest gathering of 3rd gens at ThirdGen Expo this coming Saturday, in history, (other than the assembly plant holding lots, back in the day).

The weather looks like it may actually cooperate, too!

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Thanks!

KMK454

Interesting photo of your 'vert next to a 1st gen. The 69 almost makes the thirdgen look large. And to think we complain of size for gen 5 and 6...

Regarding your paint, did you have any discoloring in your doorsills? The front vertical pillars in mine have some discoloration where the rubber seal sits against the body when the door is closed.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

There may be a parallax effect at work, Kurt. The green one on the other side of me is also a 1st gen.

Yes, I do indeed have that discoloration from the door seal. I also had it on my white '83.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Just sitting at home, hanging out with his brothers.....

88IROCvertZ

iTrader: (1)

That's amazing! Looks like the vert is fitting in nicely..

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Yes, the boys have accepted their new roomie.

PurelyPMD

iTrader: (3)

Damn - too nice in there! When I was first starting out in life, my apartments weren't that nice!

GASPEDDLER

iTrader: (2)

Birds of feather....

82tarecaro

iTrader: (4)

Hmm... a few 4 post lifts and you could add a few more to the collection...

burnout88

I see an empty spot? Should be able to add one more. A 91 or 92 1le 5.7 would finish up the collection nicely. You don't have any 5.7 cars.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

I wish, Brian. All spots are spoken for. I just re-arranged the cars in order to take the black one out for a spin.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Or at least one...

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Show of hands. Who here thought I could actually live with these strange, mystery blemishes in my paint? Well, I couldn't, especially on the hood. I had briefly considered repainting the hood, but man what a sin it would be to remove that 95% perfect factory paint.

So, I decided to do some touch up. Easier said than done! White is a biotch! I was very lucky with my white single stage '83. It took some homework, but I finally figured out that Duplicolor made an EXACT match. Touch ups were a breeze with that car.

So armed with my WA code, I went to me local Chevy dealer for some paint. Essentially it was a Duplicolor tube with a GM label, except it cost $23 instead of $13. Okay, no prob, as long as it matches. It didn't! Not even close. I used that same WA code at my parts store and got the exact same tube of paint, but without a GM label. Damn!

At this point, I knew I'd have to have some paint mixed. So, I went to my local body shop, but their system can only mix basecoat/clearcoat, which means my touch ups will be flat white. I really wanted a single stage touch up, so no dice.

I then took the car to a local paint supply store and had it scanned for a paint match. With great excitement, I brought my pint of paint home and started working. The paint turned out to be too gray - darn, darn, darn! On top of that it wouldn't cure enough to stand up to wet sanding and buffing.

So back to the paint supply store. This time the paint manager was there. He rescanned my car, (in the shade instead of direct sun, which I found out is VERY important!) and compared the new formula with the old one and determined my paint needed a tiny bit of ochre, so he remixed it. He also gave me a formula for mixing activator and reducer with the paint and some extra ochre, in case I wanted to tweak the mix.

And what we got was a pretty good match! Most spots are literally invisible, but there are a couple you can see if you look for them. I'm almost tempted to add more ochre, but I think I won't mess with it for now. In a couple of days I'll wet sand and and buff and I will either be very happy.....or not!



So much more involved when you just can't get a tube of perfectly matching paint!

B4C5.7

iTrader: (2)

You are right Chazman, white is the toughest match.

82tarecaro

iTrader: (4)

Charlie - I am curious about your touch up process. Is that single stage or 2 stage? How are you touching up and getting good results? I have never had great results touching up.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Single stage for the touch ups. I apply with a brush or one of those applicators. Wet sand, 1500, 2000, 2500, maybe 3000 and buff, for something like this I use Megs 105 and 205. If the paint is an exact or virtually exact color match, the touch ups are almost invisible.


I used the Dr. Colorchip kit on my purple '92. That car had thousands of tiny chips. If I did those individually, I'd still be there! With that system you use a little squeegee to fill 10-20 chips at a time, let it set for a few minutes and buff off the excess with the included compound. But the Dr Colorchip paint is pretty soft. It won't stand up to any wet sanding and very little buffing.

There are literally many hundreds of repaired chips in the below pics. In the right light you can see them, mostly because the surface isn't even. If the Dr Colorchip paint could stand up to wet sanding, they'd be virtually invisible.


Note, I also painted the hood bister vents matt black, since all the original paint was gone.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

UPDATE!:

The touch up paint worked out pretty well. Everything is now wet sanded and buffed.

This was the worse part of the hood. The part that made me consider repainting it. If you really look closely, you can see something, but if you didn't know, you'd never see it.



This was the other really bad spot. I had considered repainting the door over this. Someone in the past had buffed through the paint, to the primer. I filled it in with a brush. When the paint was almost dry, I brushed reducer on the edges to feather them in, from outside edge toward center. After it dried I knocked it down with 1000, 1500, 2000 and 3000 sandpaper , then buffed. Again, if you look closely you might notice something, but for all practical purposes it is invisible.




I may go back and fiddle a bit with some of these spots, but at least now I'm not obsessing over it, and can move on to other things.

82tarecaro

iTrader: (4)

Wow Charlie that looks great.

B4C5.7

iTrader: (2)

Knew you would pull it off, looks great Charlie.

chazman

iTrader: (4)

Thanks guys.

Here's my car from last night's cruise night.

82tarecaro

iTrader: (4)

Can't see the touch ups at all from that pic.