Chad already tried that.
"A friend mentioned having someone hold the headpipe center while another guy snugs it up. Tried that too but did not make much difference."
In addition, the muffler on one side had yet to be snugged down and was not hanging parellel with the floor pan from side to side. By leveling it, it only made the already tight crossmember gap even tighter. Gardner makes an excellent system and I have never had problems with them but this one is giving us fits. I will be ordering two complete systems in the next few weeks but this does not help Chad. I think the only solution is to take the header pipes to a custom exhaust company and have them flatten down the area in question more than it already is. Time is the issue here so I don't think Chad has the time to ship the header pipes back to Eric and get them returned in time.
Maybe Eric could remake a couple of header pipes for Chad with a more crushed area like the photos show and ship those out right away while Chad is returning his back to Eric. At least he will be able to get the car to the show on time with the Gardner system installed for all to see.
Rick