All of this work is exhausting!

I had some more welding done on my catalytic converter heat shield.  These welds warped a little bit, but I was able to straighten it back out.

Ground and smoothed.  It isn't perfect, but I'm going to use it.  I'm struggling with this super thin Stainless.

I made a plug for the exhaust pipes so I can backpurge the welds.  I made two different sizes - a 2-1/2" ID pipe (for the cat and mufflers) and a smaller section for 2-1/2" OD pipes.  It seals into the tube with an o-ring, and has a barb fitting on the other side.  I didn't do a lot of research on back purge setups, so hopefully this works and doesn't give me much trouble.

I took a break for a late summer bonfire at a friend's house.  I wish I was a better photographer.

I realized that the Magnaflow parts I had purchased were 409 stainless rather than 304.  This means they will tarnish almost immediately, and eventually even rust.  It won't be as bad as regular steel, but certainly not a show-worthy shine. 

So I bought new ones from Vibrant Performance.  I generally don't get excited about shunning an American made product for imported stuff, but these are really nice pieces.  All of the Vibrant stuff I have received has been pretty nice so far. 

I continued on with my catalytic converter heat shield.  I had the main seams welded, then I bent up two more parts.  This will cover the entire converter, plus the welds on each side.

I also bought a weld-on V-band clamp, and a regular slip-fit clamp for the muffler.  It's been slow going recently, but I hope to get some work done on the exhaust system this weekend.

I helped my friend Chris install some new windows in his house this weekend.  While I was there, I snapped a picture of his workshop.   He has a pretty solid tool setup!

I'm having some technical difficulties with the rest of the pictures from this weekend, so that's all for now.

I received most of the parts for my exhaust - a Vibrant Performance 304 stainless flex section, a Magnaflow universal stainless steel catalytic converter, a Magnaflow resonator, and Magnaflow muffler. 

All of the welds were pretty nasty, so I cleaned them up.  I also gave them all a nice uniform brushed finish with red Scotch-Brite.

After:

The catalytic converter came with an "OEM Style Heat Shield," which was made of galvanized steel, and generally ugly.  So I cut it off.

I made a new one from brushed stainless steel that will match the style of the main heat shield.  This one will go on the bottom of the cat, so I don't start fires if I park on dry grass.

I'm ready for some more welding, I will continue the exhaust this week.

I had a few more of the seams in my heat shield welded, and then I ground and blended them.

Last week, I thought I was finished with this thing.  It certainly wasn't perfect, but for the first time during this project I called it 'good enough.'  No close-ups photos!

Then I tried to fit it back up to the body.  I was able to get all 10 screws into the fixture, but it took some serious tugging and most of the screws were really tight.  I wasn't able to get more than 6 screws into while it was mounted in the car.  Plus it warped quite a bit during the weld process, and I didn't do a great job grinding the welds.

So I cut it up.  This fucking piece is killing me.  I have been busy with other stuff and haven't been working on the car as much, but I've been working on this thing half of the summer.

I posted this same picture back on July 14... Hopefully my 2nd attempt at making the center section is a little more successful.