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Ryan wrote:Do you have any flex pieces in your exhaust? I don't see any...

Without them, you'll break stuff in a hurry

I was concerned about that too. The only flex is the ball and socket on the front header. Thinkin' I will add one of these.
http://vibrantperformance.com/catalog/i ... _1064_1113

IMACHU2 wrote:
Put a new MX-3 GS anti-roll bar on the MX-326GS on Monday. Wow that is a big job on this car. I had lower the front sub frame, remove the steering rack, front pipe and the front hubs!

[img]http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s309 ... %20326%20G

I love this, you know you're intimate with the car when you do something like this. Any sane person would look at the project and just go:



F it.

I was fighting with it for a few minutes, then looked it up in the Haynes manual, I almost cried. I figured now or never, everything is new and fresh, it will never come back apart easier then now

Ryan wrote:Do you have any flex pieces in your exhaust? I don't see any...

Without them, you'll break stuff in a hurry


F it.

Why would that be ? Isn't it due to tensions on the exhaust ?

The motor rocks quite a bit when you slam through the gears. That causes a bending moment through the & pipe as it tries to rotate.

Unless you have solid motor and trans mounts you wont have to worry about a flex pipe. the hangers will have all the movement you will need. Unless you have OE mounts then you should definitely have a flex pipe. I would just make sure you have your brackets from the downpipe of the header to the block and you should be fine.

I bought a new toy (auto darkening welding helmet)

I am going to weld a in a 6" flex pipe before the cat.

Sweet! Good call on the flex piece It'd be awkward if 200km later your exhaust cracks in half.

I've heard lots of complaints from long time welders (career welders) about the auto-darkening helmets bothering their eyes over time. Even though its apparently near-instant, its still enough to do damage.

Just a heads up.

Ryan wrote:Sweet! Good call on the flex piece It'd be awkward if 200km later your exhaust cracks in half.

I've heard lots of complaints from long time welders (career welders) about the auto-darkening helmets bothering their eyes over time. Even though its apparently near-instant, its still enough to do damage.

Just a heads up.

I am not a welder by trade, but I have a regular helmet I use at home and an auto-darkening one at work... I prefer the regular helmet... that time for it to switch is enough where it flashes you eyes... I find my self closing my eyes as I am squeezing the trigger...

Also when I do exhaust work in awkward angles, the sensor doesn't always see what I am doing and it doesn't always switch...

Auto helmets are much easier to use though... Its soooo much nicer not to be flipping the visor all the time...

The new welding helmet worked very well, I love that thing! It worked well undercar to, I just switched the sensitivity switch to low under the car, because the trouble light was triggering it. I can see how a regular helmet would be safer, but I don't weld very often.

I decided to add a flex coupler to the MX-326GS' exhaust system today

Here is the flex coupler welded in.


The rear pipe needed to be shortened and a new flange was welded on.




Front/mid and rear pipe all pretty.


Installed and no leaks! Finnaly the last chapter of Man VS Exhaust.

Put some body panels on the MX-326GS today. Put all the weather stripping on too.




Left door.



Right door. I also put the hatch on for real (it was just sitting on there before).



Left Fender.


Right Fender.


Felt good to put the body on, and DRIVE it in and out of the garage

Although I did not work on the car this weekend, I did manage to collect some stuff. My Son and I managed to cut the windshield out of my parts car. I also got some seat brackets out of the parts car too. I got some goodies from the Mazda dealership today too. I bought a new antenna, door trim/weather strips, and all the foam /rubber stuff to put the windshield in.

Got a Mazda 626 front lip. (They look cool on 323's) I also got hood pins and lanyards.



Pic of 626 front lip on a 323 (not my car)

Worked on the car all weekend.

Painted the bottom of the hood



Painted the under hood part of the fenders.


Bondo glassed then smoothed out the welded in patch where the third brake light was.


I added a roof spoiler with a third brake light. Drilling the holes was a tad scary LOL


Fixed a rust hole in the hood



Installed the hood pins. (no room for a latch with the kustom rad)


Primed the beast, it is going to be coated with semi gloss black Plasti Dip, this is just black primer so far.






I was happy with how some of the major repairs turned out. The rocker, quarter and hood repairs look perfect. I uncovered a invisible dent and made a few boo boo's in the rest of it. One opp's was some glue residue from the moldings and a sloppy bond edge on the front of the hood. I am going to fix the dent and my other mistakes, spot putty it and give it another shot of flat black primer before "paint"

Where did you get your plasti-dip. I've looked around here and can't find the spray cans of it.

Love the car so far.

I don't know where you find the time, I'm a single parent and I can't seem to even finish reading your work log. Great work so far from the bits and pieces I get time to read.

wytbishop wrote:Where did you get your plasti-dip. I've looked around here and can't find the spray cans of it.

Love the car so far.

Thanks The store I work for sells Plasti Dip, we won't ship it to you though, (it is death in a can) LOL. I talked to the supplier, he said you should be able to order it from Home Hardware. In Ontario Home Hardware has it "green listed it" whatever that means, they should be able to order it though. If that is a dead end, you can go to the source. They may sell it to you or a least tell you where to buy it.
http://www.ippnet.com/locations/calgary-ab.html

If all else fails let me know and my Ontario source says he can ship to you.