WOW, what an ordeal

[josh clark <exc@idt.net>]

OH MAN!  I just finished my full exhaust replacement with Jay and It was
a BAD experience!  I am fully satisfied with the results but it was a
bad day for me =)  It's a pretty funny story so here goes:  (If you're
bored like me go ahead and read on)
We did the exhaust in my garage with a floor jack so there was a lot of
belly scraping.  Taking the old downpipe off wasn't that bad.  The
clamps just needed some screwdriver prying.  THEN the hard part.  The
old cat was bolted on like they usually are.  It was slid onto the
downpipe about 5" and clamped!  It would not come loose so there wasn't
anyway to get the downpipe down because the sway bar was in the way!  We
tried undoing the clamp but the pipe was fastened hard.  Finally wae
decided the pipe needed grinding (this is about 1 hour later)  We get to
Jay's house grab the grinder and go to Sears for a disc.  The grinder is
some funky size and no disc fit!  Now it's 9:00pm and we go back to
Jay's house and grab the MONSTER grinder!  Get back to my house (9:45 or
so) and get the grinder ready.  We start to grind and the pipe falls
down!  I have no clu how.  I jammed that thing so hard and it's wouldn't
budge past the axle!  Anyway we got the pipe off.  Now we had to get the
new clamps ready for the new downpipe.  Jay had a great idea.  he pur 
the clamp on the outside edge of my vise and it stayed!  We thought it
would too!  We got the first clamp opened and I cut a bar to keep it
open and it worked great!  The next clamp was funny.  We had to extend
it more than the other because the downpipe was tighter on the clamped
side.  I got it open really far and yanked it one more time thinking the
clamp would just fall if it came loose.  It FLEW off!  Accross the
garage, hit my hood and my windshield and finally fell on the floor! 
That was scary!  Finally we got it on and then I realize Mark forgot
(damn him =) ) to give me the three bolts for the downpipe to cat
flang.  BACK to Jay's to get the bolts, BACK to my house I just put the
rest of the exhaust together and tightedned it up today and what
difference!  The car has more power but this is bad right now cuz the
clutch is slipping.  That has to wait 'til next week.  Thanks for
listening, my back KILLS!  It feels like sunburn!
Josh Clark
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