So, in the process of rebuilding several trucks, we're facing a critical juncture; exhaust rebuilding. These are trucks for which "factory" exhaust pipes are no longer available...they have good exhaust manifolds, and about 1" of good tube on the end of the manifolds, but after that, it's rust-o-rama. So the question is: what is the best way to home fab exhaust (this is not a trail vehicle or anything...). As I see it, we have a few options. 1: Buy all the pre-bent angle pieces and straight pieces and weld'em up...but that looks to be pretty expensive. Absent a tube bender, we can't really bend our own, so 2: Buy that corrugated "bend it yourself" tube and make our own bends, but does that really hold up? 3 would be to take the trucks to a muffler shop, but that sounds too expensive. So...any suggestions?

Moneyless, Will weld for jeep accessories.

shouldn't one be able to bend exhaust pipe with one of the cheap $100 harbor freight benders? This should be an interesting thread since I will be doing the exhaust on my '76 CJ-7 project soon..



Mark
83 CJ-7 and 76 CJ-7 with stuff

Well you could make the hole thing out of flex pipe! LOL

Rodney C
1985 CJ7,302 V8,T18,D20,D44's,SOA,Shackles Reversed, 35" BFG AT's, Fiberglass Tub & Front End...
1990 Samurai,87 drive line,SOA+2.5" Add-A-Leaf,4.16's,5.12's,33" BFG's,Pony Carb...

fles pipe gets rusty and leaky quick, at least it did when I used to patch my hacksawed MGB exhaust in Highschool, I just had to get the exhaust header you know.

I dont see why a cheap bender woulndt work, or a good shop should do it for around $100



OzarkJeep

"Bare foot girls, dancing in the moon light..."

I just did my '87 yj with prebent tubing I bought from Advance.The front pipe about $30,the rear $25,the muffler $40 may have to get some adapters to make everything fit.I little challenging,cause I didn't use oem muffler and took out cat.I welded all connections with steel rod and torch.I'm poor too[people tell me cheap],but I believe I have a pretty decent exhaust now.

Hmm, how about getting some stiff wire or maybe some metal conduit and make a pattern of how the pipes need to be run. Take this to a muffler shop and get them to bend some pipe to match the pattern. If its a good shop they should be able to get pretty close. I just took some old pipe in this week and got new ones bent, cost $50 for pipe and bending front to back.

BMB

Around here guys just grab a bunch of pipes from the dumpster at the muffler shop, and weld them together.

I just replaced the pipes on my CJ. Made a drawing, measured very carefully and had the muffler shop cut and bend it. Had all the bends done at 90 degrees and only one bend per piece of pipe. I had each piece of pipe "belled" on one end (so next pipe can slide in) and cut longer then need on the other end so I could trim to fit. In the attachment photo you can see what I'm saying. I'm using '63 corvette "rams horn" manifolds that dump in the middle. The passinger side pipe goes under the motor at the shallow part of the oil pan then turn 90 degrees to the Y-pipe. The drivers side turns right into the Y-pipe which has a 3" collector. I don't have much room for a muffler so I bought a "Car Chemistry" silencer that fit into the collector(but is still pretty loud). All the pipes cost about 100 bucks out here on the Island but I'm sure it would be much cheaper in the mainland. This setup keeps everything up tight for good ground clearance and the two to one pipe adds to the low end torque of the motor.

Wayne @ Big Island RockCrawlers
Web Site: http://www.members.tripod.com/surfmac/Index.html

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You know I once heard that flex pipe is not street legal in IL and that you won't pass inspection. And unfortunately Naperville ain't far enough south to dodge emissions/inspections. Man I can't wait to move further south, stupid emissions. Blah Blah Blah ......... Oh wait now I got a question. I don't know whether you drive this way or not but do you happen to know the person who owns the orange CJ7 with the hard top on RT53 a bit south of Naperville road on the west side of the street? I drive by it all the time and always wonder what it's fate will be.

I also think that the corrogated and flexy stuff are a stop gap fix only. You can buy the pipes/muffler for the rear of the vehicle then look at engine pipes and see where there is a mismatch and have an adapter pipe made or get out the yellow pages and look under high performance autos for a custom exhaust shop. Find a guy that will work with you. Then you can buy the mufflers of your choice, and also maybe ask him to make a straight section in front of the muffler for a cat. if you need to add one later. My next system is gonna be all stainless. Nothing like laying in the snow, working on an exhaust system then getting rust in your eye.