[x-bird]

Time for rear frame clearance work
First order of the day was to rebuild the exhaust system to make room for the new lower shock mount locations.
The old polaris "donated" a front frame section as that was the only pipe that i could find that matched well to whatever exhaust this is (I'm thinking stock carter).

After futzing around trying to open up the pipe diameter to make it slip in for clamping/sealing, I said to heck with it and went the fully welded route.

End result is a lighter system, got rid of the thick spacer that the "bell" type pipe/clamp locked around--always leaked anyway. Also got rid of the stock muffler hangar setup and used a spare firebird rear swaybar mount --cut that in half and welded in a bolt. Urethane exhaust hangar damper is again from the firebird stockpile.

Fired it up , has a deeper "throatier" tone that makes me think i picked up a bit of bottom end, eliminated a couple restrictions and overall, the pipe opens up about 1/8th to 1/4 ID bigger from the stock diameter at the first weld.

Part of the issue is the lower rack frame hitting the swingarm upper tubes, so since they were serving no real purpose, i took the sawzall to them. buh bye ... the electrical items arre getting a bit pinched, so that whole mess needs cleaned up and relocated to the upper rack level--fuel petcock also comes real close to the swingarm, so the tank will get raised about an inch.

Still have to add a 3/16ths thick corner gussets to the swingarm and weld the new mounts on those. that should hopefully wrap up the rear end of this thing.

corner gussets are in thanks to a quick notch session on the spring shackle plates from the Ez-go rear axle mounts. Just gotta cut and drill some shock mounts. they'll be about the same location as the originals, just slightly inboard to clear the roll cage support tubing.