Well, all I can say is I've been neglectful of my updates, here's a few pics on where I am. Yep, plug wires need attention!

You retired guys.........slackin:grin:

My man, Pete came over today and was able to finesse the original headliner and sail panels back in after 48 years on the shelf. It's not 100% perfect but it's damn close! Pete is 78 years young.

That's a big thumbs up, Sir!!

Getting into the home stretch. Gardner exhaust is getting put on at a fab shop close by. The Bill Thomas headers (awesomely reproduced by LC) are getting fabbed-up to the Gardner head pipes. Shout out to Eric Gardner as he is helping us work through building that nice clean transition with information and suggestions. It's really nice to work with the few companies remaining that will take time with the customer after the sale. And I don't need to tell anyone here about the quality of Eric's product, top notch.

The car sounded great with open headers loading it into the trailer. I momentarily wondered if I should do cutouts but quickly talked myself out of that. It occurred to me when I drove it off of the hoist that it's the first time the car moved under it's own power since the late 70s.

Looks...and I bet it sounds amazing!:headbang:

Thanks for this update. I'll be having to do the same modifications to my exhaust to match up to the headers.

Thanks Bruce! Can’t wait for the exhaust to be buttoned-up. I opted for the Gardner deep tone muffler as others told me it sounds great. The fabricator and I align 100% on the goal of making the transition pretty but also period looking.

Does the fabricator have a pipe bender to increase the 2 bends and get a straighter shot at the collector ?

He does but does not have the correct 4'' wrinkle shoe/radius die for his bender. The shoe is almost $600 so speaking with Eric Gardner gave us some more ideas which provided us clearer direction on how to achieve the "straight shot". The fabricator wants to maintain the uniformity of the head pipes to the driveshaft which believe it or not makes it look a whole lot better.

I hear 'ya on keeping uniformity while getting a straighter angle. If he is able to do that, it's going to look really cool...:worship:

With the two crinkle bends already there from Gardner, can your guy not just increase the amount of those bends with his smooth dies? I would think the crinkles would survive that process if it is not an extreme amount of additional bend.

Plus, if the idea is for it to look like it would have in 1967, that is probably exactly what the muffler shop would have done at that time to install the headers!

Good luck either way, and looking GOOD!!

Phenomenal Paul!

He could use a smooth die, Jeff but Eric advised it would not work too well on the crinkle bends and we would not be happy with the results.

This is Chick's Z with Garner and headers.

Would you consider using 3917531/32 Adapter-Exhaust Manif. To Exh. Pipe-L.H./R.H?
It’s listed in AIM UPC O C1.5. I’m sure it would have to be fabricated.

This is what I believe it looks like.

I've heard of this kit but had never seen one, thank you for posting. I found this reference in the AIM shipping manifest. The first part number referenced below if for the instruction sheet.

Damn !! those are cool adapters, if a person could find them on a shelf somewhere.

You’re welcome Paul.
The adapter pic came from Jon’s Headers post at the CRG. The installation kit was part of the Dick Lewis header package which preceded the LC headers.

The other photo showing the adapters installed is of the survivor 67 Mountain Green Z28 now owned by Chris P.

I too have a Gardner deep tone exhaust and LC headers to install on my car and will have adapters fabricated for the transition.

Looking forward to the rest of your build thread. Your car is one of my favorites!

Just wanted to comment that I did have to use a friends tube bender to slightly bend both tubes so they would match perfectly with the original type 68 repro exhaust headers. Was not a lot but again they had to be tweaked, After final fit up approval we had a local shop place the ends of each exhaust tube due to cones being welded on a layer of protection, clear zinc. Matched perfectly and to this day looks clean and fresh looking.

I'm assuming your headers are the Kustom design. Since mine are the Bill Thomas design, I wonder if your collectors fall closer to the stock pipe location than mine. Once we got a good look we realized even re-bending the head pipe we still would not have a straight shot to the collector. We opted to cut the head pipes back a little further and have Eric G bend us some new pieces which worked-out great. Here's where he's at as of today:

Work of art!!

Paul, I had Douglass style 4-bolt round flanges made some years back if you prefer that style over the 3-bolt style. I have extras.

Thank you, Jon.....appreciate the offer but the collector side flanges are already welded.

This is the first example I’ve seen of collector flanges installed on reproduction 67 Z-28 headers and I’m wondering if this is due to the production date of your car and the availability of the 2nd design Douglass Headers?

I hadn’t considered installing collector flanges on the headers for my 06E car but will now.

Your exhaust installation looks great!

My car didn't get factory headers but it did have first generation Doug's headers the original owner put on shortly after he bought the car. Those headers had collector flanges. Honestly, I wasn't looking to do a true period installation, I just wanted to do a really clean installation that was achievable in 1967. My fab guy wanted to do band clamps on the entire system in the name of serviceability but I didn't want to go that way. Here's a couple shots of the first gen Doug's: