If you can make a spud gun you can do exhaust work. Seriously, legos are more difficult. You're just uneasy because you haven't done it before. Get a sawzall and a BFH and go to town. Hangers? Mechanics wire! It's under your truck, nobody will ever see it. It should be noticably louder, so idle out of the driveway, or your dad may kill you. Just tighten the new clamps as if it will be on forever. If you have rattles, more wire! Or pay for the appropriate hangers...... I'd rather spend the money on r/c. Peace.

edit: for $40 the guy you bring it to will just hack it together, so hack it together yourself!

Ok, I'll try to do it myself. What gauge wire is mechanics wire?

Mechanics wire comes in different gauges, anything you have should work. Unless you wreck the hanger, you shouldn't need wire, but may. My point is its just a pipe hanging under a truck, all you gotta do is get it hung under your truck. You said you had 2.5" pipes, so you'll need 2 2.5" clamps, and probably a sleeve (adapter) to slip in the glasspack and in the existing exhaust with a clamp on either side. Your local auto parts store will have everything. And if something doesn't fit you get to drive around with no muffler while you get parts! (everybody's gotta do it once!)

Mechanics wire is a metal clothes hanger.lol They work great for holding up exhaust.

I heard that lasts awhile to.

can't tell, but I assume that's sarcasm? coat hangers fatigue and break easily(bend it back and forth a couple times, it'll break)

My friends have used them before. They actually hold up quite well. Will last over a year if done right.

if done right. that means a solid mount. movement will fatigue lesser wire as mentioned earlier. That being said, I've fixed exhausts with coat hangers, twine, soup cans and bungee straps. :oh:

I think my current muffler is clamped on, so i can use the same clamps. I will plan on keeping the back the same because the pipe bends shortly after. I think I'll make up the four extra inches in the front and find a way to hang the pipe safely.

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p...1/S7301784.jpg
http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p...1/S7301785.jpg

And a picture of the glasspack itself..

http://i345.photobucket.com/albums/p...1/S7301786.jpg

you need new clamps. don't reuse them, and don't start the project w/o clamps. they'll be a pain to loosen. usually to get old clamps off I tighten with an impact wrench and they snap off.

Thanks for the heads up. How much do they cost? I don't plan on re-using them, just wondering...:intello:

edit - How do the muffler clamps work? Do the bend the pipe a little to really clamp down on the muffler?

a couple clamps should be $5-10. you don't need heavy duty or anything. judging by the pics, it appears the front of the muffler is welded, and that is just a hanger. The rear that attaches to the tailpipe is most certainly a clamp. Get 'er dun:party:

edit: the front is just clamped to the hanger (duh) should be easy

Yep, it basically pinches one pipe tightly over another.

u also need to know if the 2.5 is the inner diameter of the pipe or the outer diameter. if they are the same u can just connect them with band clamps but if the pipe on ur truck will fit over the glass pack that is the way to go and u can get a better fit less likely to leak, also if the old muffler is off set u will have problems with the fit. before u go cutting up ur old stuff besure u have a strait shot between the pipes after u cut the muffler out.

The glasspack fits over the existing pipe. I want to get it installed this weekend if I have time. The part I am nervous about is cutting the existing pipe and hanging the front of the glasspack....

I should be able to do it though. I'll give er the good old college try. If I can't get it done myself, I just take it to Vogel motors here in town and they can do it.

once you get the clamps off, in thoery, it should pull apart with no cutting required. Of course, they may be rusted together, that's where the BFH comes in. Soak the joints and clamp nuts with penetrating oil about 15 min. before you start, it may make things easier. It looks to me like you could bend/push/pull/whack the front mount to work with the glass pack, and the rear mount is attached to the tailpipe, not the muffler, so your rear is set.

I like your attitude. Give it a try. We're only afraid of the unknown.:yes:

If you can weld then dont worry about messing up because you can weld that same peice you just cut off if need be. :lol:

Probably wouldnt hurt to go ahead and spray the nuts and joints and everything with some good penetrating oil. I like PB Blaster myself. It works great. Just spray it good once a day or every other day and it should come apart with no problems. Definitely aint going to hurt anything.

Okay I'd like to help but can't read the whole 4 pages. From what I've read, you have a 318 V8 and want to slap on a Thrush to get some burly exhaust right? I just fabbed up a dual exhaust setup for my '72 F100 including headers (Summit brand) and straight pipes with turndowns. Welded it all together, of course, no clamps. So if you need some help, feel free to ask.

Thanks for all the help so far guys. I'm having a friend come over saturday afternoon and I'll get it thrown in. I'll have to buy the muffler clamps the same day...

My truck should sound pretty good pulling into confirmation on sunday!:lol:

You mean church confirmation?

oh yeah

Oh god....:oh:

no muffler just straight pipe it!:intello:

Sod that, just cut the entire exhaust system off and have some pipes sticking out the hood- a la junkyard wars...

You mean zumiez? Im getting a new cross over for my truck tomaro. startin it up straight outta the cross over :mdr:

So I got it installed today. No one could come over and help me, so I did it myself.

First step was getting it up in the air. The best option was to back it onto these ramp things and my dad helped me with that. We got it after a few tries and violent slips...

The old muffler clamps weren't too bad to get off, I sprayed them with oil last night and before I started working. The hard part was getting the old muffler off. I wanted to just twist it off, but it never worked out. I tried dremeling the rust away and everything. Eventually I cut the front end of the muffler off with a sawsall and unhooked the rest. I took the tailpipe-muffler to the bench and tried for a good 30-45 minutes to get the muffler off the pipe. After beating it with a hammer for awhile, I cut it as far away from the mount that held the tailpipe on as I could and got the remaining sleeve off after cutting it lengthwise.

Now comes installing the glasspack. I put one end on the tailpipe and slid that back in. I got the front on and after some eyeballing, I realized it wouldn't be to hard to hang it. I re-used almost every stock mount. The one thing I changed was in the front of the muffler I put it through the hole that used to be there and I used to ton of wire to bind the old mount and the new muffler/muffler clamp. It turned out really nice.

Now it was installed. I started it up. HOLY $HiT it sounded nice! It is nice and deep and growly. I took er around the block pretty slow and it's not too loud, but definately louder then the old muffler. The old muffler was pretty rusted out and sounded like it had sand in it....

I got inside and my and his girlfriend both heard it. His girlfriend was bitching saying "it shook the whole house" in her snotty complaining voice.... My dad said it was loud, and that's about all he said. He is a little hearing impared from his old construction work...:lol:
All in all I love my new glasspack. :angel: I haven't taken it above 20mph yet so I might change my mind... Or like it more!:yipi:

See. Told you there wasnt anything to it. Get a video of it. Do some big smokey burnouts.

I might get a vid... hmmm....

I think all the people that think glasspacks sound like crap is people that use them on newer, 4-6cyl engines. I got a old syle V8. You think that's the problem, too small of engine to make it sound good?

The cats may also play a role in it... After shaking the old muffler I bet the cat is all rusted/broken out. It's old and unrestricive too...

Do some big smokey burnouts. Those are always cool.

Here are some pics of one I did a while back. Didnt get it on video.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...101640x480.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...100640x480.jpg

Yea, Its just a little old 1988 Ford Ranger. lol

Looks like fun! BUT the tires didn't have much fun... and neither would my wallet...

Hahah. No joke. I got a old set of stock wheels I just put old cheap tires on and have some fun ever once in a while.

I'm glad to hear you did it yourself and got it done. Loud pipes save lives.

Hey! Glasspacks dont sound bad on smaller engines. Take for instance my friends 94 inegra with a cb glasspack and my saab with a cb turbo muffler. Both sound identicle and both sound epic at any rpm. My personal fav is when I downshift and it crackles. Cant beat it.