I was fortunate enough to get 5 of the 6 exhaust manifold studs/nuts off. One broke, but enough was left showing that it can be twisted out with some torch heat. I’ll also remove the other remaining studs and install a new set.
Meanwhile more boring work getting the brackets ready. I’ve just cleaned them all with paint thinners and will give them a coat of rust primer and two coats of gloss black.
Time to tackle the driveshaft u-joints. All very rusty.
A couple of the clips came out using a small set of vice grips, but two broke and needed a couple of small screwdrivers and a dental pick to tease them out.
Unfortunately my bench vice is too small and not rugged enough to press out the u-joints so I’ll have to call on a buddy with a proper press to get them out.
Meanwhile I’ll try and get the mufflers replaced. Here I used my saws-all to cut them free.
I then used a zip cut to take of the remains of the old muffler connection.
I slipped the new muffler band clamp over the pipe and then coated the tail pipe with lots of never-seize. With that and the band clamp I should be able to easily separate the tail pipe from the muffler when I put a set of true dual exhausts on the Chevy.
Muffler slipped on real easy. Now I just have to get the muffler hanger in place.
Next: muffler hangar and timing mark issues.