Side Exhaust on a 1963 Corvette

I recently purchased an original 1965-67 Corvette side exhaust system on E-bay that included the exhaust pipes, covers, trim pieces, mounting brackets and all the hardware.  This set is exceptionally nice and I'd rate it an 8 out of 10.  These are perfect for our driver.

As you recall I had also purchased a new set of stainless steel reproduction exhaust pipes several months back.  Since I now have an original set of pipes I decided to do a side by side comparison.  The original pipes are in the background.  It's easy to see that the reproductions have a significantly larger exhaust tip than the originals and that tells me the repo's will sound different.  Since the originals are in such nice shape I decided to swap them out and go all original.

I was bummed when I realized a portion of the front wheel wells and all of the side brackets had to be removed in order to get the exhaust system to fit.  After a couple days of deliberating I finally decided to go ahead and do it.

I cut the fiberglass using my Fein Multi-Master tool as seen in the previous picture.  It's a great tool and it worked perfect.

The brackets are heavy gage steel and they are very close to the frame.  I decided to cut these brackets with one of the most diabolical tools I own.  The twin bladed, counter rotating, tungsten tipped Twin-Blade from Sears.  You can see it in the picture below.  This is a scary tool and it demands a ton of respect.  It will cut through anything... and I mean anything.  You turn it on and push it toward whatever you want cut.  No backlash, no jamming, no slowing down.  It took 1 minute to cut these brackets.  I could have cut the frame in half in the same amount of time if I wanted to.  It's a cool tool but very scary.

Done.

The exhaust covers and trim were installed first followed by the exhaust pipes.

The front brackets were sand blasted, painted and riveted in place.

The bolt that holds the exhaust pipe is suppose to go through a hole that I was suppose to drill in the frame.  I decided to weld the bolt to the frame instead.  It worked great and is very strong.  By the way, that's only surface rust in the exhaust pipe.  The pipes are like new.

They sound great and look awesome.  

Yes, I did both sides.

This completes our Era Modified changes.  Modifications include the Torq-Thrust D wheels, side exhaust, and the 67 big block stinger hood.  Not shown is the rear torsion bar.  I like it!

B Pillar Fiberglass Restoration

Last year when we repaired the B pillars we had to remove the fiberglass that covered the pillars.  It's time to reinstall those covers.

The drivers side cover was tabbed in place (two black tabs), riveted at the drip rail shoe, then fiberglass was applied after feathering all the joints.

I didn't like the gap between the top of the panel and the drip rail shoe so I decided to add a little more length to the panel.  Our preference is to sandwich all fiberglass repairs.  Because the panel is already fiberglassed into place I had to wedge open the gap at the top of the panel and place fiberglass matting on the backside.  Duct tape was strategically placed to capture all the excess fiberglass resin run-off.   

The back side was fully wetted with resin then fiberglass matting was put on the front side to complete the sandwich repair.  The duct tape worked great.  You can see the excess resin collecting on the paper towel at the bottom of the photo.

Here is a close up of the repair.  Remember that our fiberglass is clear so even though you see rivet holes the holes are long gone.

A tongue depressor and duct tape were used to make the resin conform to the drip rail shoe.

After 24 hours the duct tape was removed.  This picture was taken just before the fiberglass was trimmed to fit.

Double click on the picture to see how much length was actually added to the panel.  It's about an 1/8" overall but it matched the shoe very nicely.  This overall repair is extremely solid.  Just prior to painting this area the pop-rivets shown will be replaced with flush mount countersunk rivets and bonding agent will be applied along the panel and the car skin.  The same will be required for the passenger side.  

The next post should be about the side exhaust.

Thanks for watching.