DIY Axle Back Install?

[ltrcola]

I just got my new Gibson axle-backs from FedEx last night, and it felt like christmas! But, I've been going back and forth over whether I should attempt to put them on myself or have a shop do it for me.

It doesn't look all that hard, but I haven't done a whole lot of work on cars except for changing oil & putting on wheels, etc. My biggest concern is what to use in order to cut through the exhaust pipe. I don't have a sawzall, although I may be able to borrow either one of those or a grinder. I'm not sure if a regular hacksaw would be a good idea.

I'm also a little leery about putting one whole end of the car up on jackstands, since I've never done it before. Would it be better to use my oil change ramps and back up onto them? For some reason backing onto those makes me more uncomfortable than pulling forward onto them.

Would you attempt this yourself? If so, any tips?

[Silverlsinva]

i dont see why useing ur oil change ramps would be hard once u drove up on them put the parking brake on and if u have a manual put it in gear and choke the front tires and u should be fine. Once i get my axle back exhaust this is exactly how im gonna do mine.

[ajs]

Congrats on the exhaust. I felt the same way when I got mine.
Like the saying goes; "measure twice, cut once" Hopefully I'll heed that advice.
I'm putting my MRT 2.0's on Saturday.

[happycamper]

It's not hard. I did mine by backing the rear wheels onto ramps. Total time was only 1hr, of which the 1st 30 minutes was measuring over and over again.

I used a sawzall, and can't image doing it with a hacksaw because it's too tight. It only takes a 30 seconds to cut through each pipe.

Good luck.

[camaroitalia]

I personally, would take it to a shop and I have some experience working on cars. I just couldnt live with myself if i screwed up my own car knowing i coulda taken it to someone with even more experience and done these over and over again.

[MIQ]

I did it myself never having cut thru anything before. Bought the sawzall, got the right blades, and went thru hell. LOL. But in the end it worked out well. I figured i'd give it a shot and if something went wrong i'd just take it to a shop. But I want to do every modification on the car myself. After that I did springs and that was a lot easier since i've done those before. Just my 2cents

[GoPaul]

it's a pretty easy install - hardest part will be cutting your existing one and removing it. Ii initially clamped mine on using the clamps provided by MRT but I then swung by a muffler shop and got them to weld it in place - cost me $40
I'm thinking the full install from scratch may cost you $100 or a little over.

[ltrcola]

Originally Posted by camaroitalia

I personally, would take it to a shop and I have some experience working on cars. I just couldnt live with myself if i screwed up my own car knowing i coulda taken it to someone with even more experience and done these over and over again.

I definitely understand the feeling there. But I also hate paying somebody $80 an hour to do something that seems so simple. That's why I ended up doing my own oil changes. I also don't really have a shop that I trust around here in Des Moines. Taking my Camaro to your standard chain muffler shop doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

I'll probably just beg, borrow, or steal a sawzall and try it myself. I can always take it someplace if I mess up, like MIQ was saying. I may end up getting it welded later though.

[rtcat600man]

Originally Posted by ltrcola

I definitely understand the feeling there. But I also hate paying somebody $80 an hour to do something that seems so simple. That's why I ended up doing my own oil changes. I also don't really have a shop that I trust around here in Des Moines. Taking my Camaro to your standard chain muffler shop doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

I'll probably just beg, borrow, or steal a sawzall and try it myself. I can always take it someplace if I mess up, like MIQ was saying. I may end up getting it welded later though.

For me it was a good excuse to go buy a new sawzall since I didn't own one yet.

Backed my Camaro up my homemade ramps, cut the exhaust off in less than 30 seconds per side.

Was done in under 30 minutes.

I then took it to MRT and had them welded in place, since the clamps were not keeping it in place well enough. I wanted to have the shop who created them do the welding so that I could meet their team at the same time.

I don't trust anyone to do work that I knew I could do myself.

[Sgt_Snuffy]

A chop saw is really good at cutting exhaust. Straight cuts are a breeze and it'll cut through in about 5-10 seconds. I got my own welder for installing the new parts though.

I haven't done anything to my SS yet as it's about to be put on a boat for Germany and I don't want to do anything that'll cause it to fail the inspection when it gets there. I don't know how hard it is to get the exhaust off intact to get the chop saw on it.

I spent about 8 hours floundering under my previous car to weld in some new muffs but they were in the center of the pipe and I wasn't well prepared for the job.