Test fitting the wheels. I have not permanently mounted them yet because I'm waiting on some new lug nuts. My originals lugs were too fat.
I also bled the brakes with my handy new vaccum brake bleeder.
They were thoroughly nasty. My budy called it "satan's piss". Pretty uneventful, but I was disappointed in the level of suction it produced.
I bought a 2.5 inch exhaust kit to fit a Honda.
While it was a close fit, it wasn't close enough. Several sections needed adjustment or extension.
And in the spirit of true honesty that I've tried to show through out this build I give you my crappy welds. In my defense I used the stick wlder I had at home rather than the tig welder I had at work. Because, who can wait till Monday?
Nothing quite like burning a hole in your brand new exhaust to teach you how to fill a hole with the welder.
I bought a large size rigid plumbing pipe cutter that worked beautifully for straight cuts
And then struggled on my back while I adjusted, re adjusted, and then re-readjusted.
Look how tiny the old exhaust was. No wonder it had leaks. That air had to go somewhere.
One of my major concerns was how to tie the new pipe to the old cast iron ex manifold. I'm not quite ready to make a custom turbo manifold, and needed to fashion my new pipe in a way that I could bolt up to the existing one and still work in the future. I was delighted to find that the new flange in the kit would bolt up to my old flange perfectly. It was only a matter of getting the angle just right.
I did some research to find a new muffler too. I didn't want a fart can. I'm not 16 anymore. I needed something that I could rev at night without disturbing the neighbors. I bought a turbo thrush, but listened to a youtube example and it was everything I hated. Annoying There was also a Dynomax VT that looked really good to me. Dynomax But I couldn't shake all the negative reviews. In the end I went with a Walker quiet flow universal. It was way bigger than my original and needed some massaging to fit.
All done. Quiet achieved. Better flow achieved. I even like the tone.