Hi guys, long time, no post. I've been rather busy with work and my first-year aniversarry trip, plus I have another hobby (sci-fi writing) that's been gobbling my time. Anyway, I found out that Midas would've charged me 430+ to weld my Flowmaster 80 muffler (thanks, Shawn!) onto the intermediate pipe. They said the I-pipe was junk, and I needed tips, and they wanted a lot for just labor, too. I told them no thanks, and we decided to order the Edelbrock 3" single kit and a hi-flow convertor. Total cost was the same as the work Midas wanted to charge us for, but the Edelbrock says it doesn't require welding. I better get the stuff in before the end of September so I can actually install it, though...

I'm also looking at getting some slotted rear rotors shortly, Lex Brodies wanted 650 for JUST the rear brakes. I was like, no thanks, and proces some upgraded parts at Checkers for a good proce, but that won't come until later. I'll do the fronts too, but the rears are hosed and they take priority.

The beater project car is on hold - some chronic 'broke' into it and stole all the tools I had in it, and I can't seem to find the new gage cluster that was in there. It's a mess anyway, the chronics probably buried it under the other trash I hve in there. My wife is looking at doing the seat stuff shortly.

Which rear brakes do you have now?

Holy nuts, over $400?! Good Lord!

How much did they quote just for the I-pipe? Like $50? What a bunch of...

Well, at least you've got a good system coming in, Ian. I've been dying to hear how the edelbrock catback sounds, so you'll definately have to show it off to us. Now, you'll just need headers and a good y-pipe and you're in business. Where'd you order your system from?

Skip the slotted rears. Maybe on the fronts, but you really wouldn't need them unless your autocrossing career starts takin' off! Besides, slotted rears and solid fronts... hmmmm.

What cluster did you have in the beater? A pontiac or chevy? I still haven't gotten around to swapping clusters yet, but I will as soon as I match the mileage up. You can have my 120mph/v6 cluster once it's out. The tach might be broken though.

Scott

Seeing as I have a GTA, it has disc rears (most likely factory stock ORIGINAL), along with a bunch of other goodies, like an oil cooler, dual fans, posi rear.

I'm still going ot get the brakes, but if I can get a deal on the fronts too, I'll simply do them both at the same time. Time will tell. Plus, if I was really sick on Autocross, I'd be dumping more money on suspension and tires and simply screw the brakes for now.

The cluster was out of a Chevy, but if I can't seem to find it now (freaking chronics) I'll need a replacement, and I haven't a clue what I'll do with the Chevy dashboard, as your module most likely won't fit in the Chevy one - I'll have to put the Pontiac dash back together. Looks nasty, it does, probably why no one has hot-wired it yet and made off with the whole car.

Oh, I'm almost to the point of drooling over the anticipation of hearing the car with the Edelbrock TES on. I'll probably putz around Waipahu with NO pipes for a bit, just to show off my highly illegal car, then stick the new tubing on. HEaders and Y-pipe are after the engine has been stroked out, so I have to deal with manifolds on a stock 350 for awhile. No big deal, but the 383 will definitly have some Edelbrock TES headers on it, just so I can have an emissions-legal toy. Yeah, this ain't California, but still, you never know where life will lead you...

Yea I heard of shops like that doing this. You come in and something is wrong with your brakes? All you need is just new pads and to have your rotors machined. But what they'll do is put new rotors, new calipers, new brake lines, and new brake pads O_o I've already heard a lot of this stuff. How do you think the big companies became so big? O_o

Same with my gf's 300zx her a/c wasn't blowing cold. She took it to some well known a/c guy up in pearl city area. He told her a total of like $1,700+ to fix her a/c. She thought he was legit cause he had a lot of cars and seemed very succesful. My dad checked it out and I think the total came out to like $500 The guy was probably gonna replace her whole a/c system or something.

Heard that, too. However, the rears ARE destroyed, saw them myself, so I dont'think they were trying to scam me for brake work. Now, if they told me the front was bad too, I would've been a bit suspicious.

It's in, it's nice, it's quiet. It's also legal! However, I jacked up the intermediate pipe where it fits onto the coverter, so I'll have to re-do the whole thing some time. However, I like being able to hear my engine again...

We're gonna have to meet up again so we can all hear it now

Ain't much to hear, not compared to the Flowmasters you all have. I still have the FM-80, I have a thought that I can use the existing clamps and stuff to stick that on the new intermediate pipe and the tips. I wonder if it would be worth the trouble at all. Plus, the wife would kill me - I did pay brand-new pricing for the Edelbrock set up. Maybe I'll shove it onto the FIrebird, as soon as I get around to working on it again. Having a chronic steal all my tools out of that car just turned me off of working on it, I hope I can muster the energy to at least restore it, before it gets towed.

Agreed! I haven't had the pleasure of hearing the edelbrock catback yet. I do have their headers though.

Headers come after my engine is a rebuilt 383, then my exhaust should sound very different. Heck, headers NOW would do something cool. I'm busier then a one-legged cat in a sandbox, as it is right now.

So is the GTA nice and legal now? Don't you have an autocross appointment coming up?

Unfortunatly, no. I was GOING to compete this weekend, but my rear brakes are still shot to nothing and I still have to update the registration and work on my beater so more. Tomorrow looks too busy to get in some lap time, so I'll have to wait until early next year. I sure wish they would do stuff on more Saturday's.