Hi fellas. I just ordered a three piece NOS exhaust from Waldron's Exhaust in MI for my 1962 Valiant 225 Signet. Can an average shade tree wrench like myself install this plumbing in a few hours? any tech articles advice for the novice. install parts to get. Or should I enlist the aid of my local but slow mechanic/ thanks cshunley

what tools do you have and is it a bolt on unit? It would be easiest to be able to get comfortably under the car obviousely(I won't say it's not possible to do without raising up the car because I'm sure with enough enginuity you'd figure it out). I like everything welded up personally but if it's a bolt on unit and you can get under the car it should be fairly easy. If you have a welder and can get under the car that would be even better.

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My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.

NOS parts are precious. Save the shadetree stuff for cheap aftermarket pieces. You dont want to spoil a part with very limited availability.

Why did you buy NOS, anyway? I never buy that stuff unless I absolutely have to. They really belong on museum pieces and show cars. Using up NOS parts on a daily driver is just bad karma. Think of it as mailing a rare collector stamp or spending an uncirculated vintage coin.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Step... what you say has truth to it, assuming the parts have value.... If it was an exhaust pipe from a 426 hemi cuda I'm sure people will pay thousands for it, but no one seems to care much about NOS /6 stuff.

But either way cshunley, I'd say sell off what you have and take it to an exhaust shop. This would be a good opertunity to upgrade your exhaust with a larger pipe, or even headers or dutra duals if you want to go even further.

Yeah, exhaust shops are good if you have one around. I have a cousin that works their and his advice helped me get an exhaust that looks stock without crawling underneath the car but is straight flow-through glasspack. He managed to keep the pipe down small enough to make it so that I have the sound of a sleep, normal driving my car's only mildly louder than usual, step on the gas and you hear it. I doubt if NOS can do that.

Anyway, in case your in Spokane that was Doc's muffler, great place.

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My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.

Your NOS exhaust is most likely aftermarket NOS, not OEM NOS.
You can do it with a few tools. Some tools sometimes needed, pipe cutter (or a good hacksaw), and a pipe expander.
Get the car as high off the ground that you can.
Check to see if all female/male pipe ends slide in without being overly tight/loose. If thet are, you'll need the expander to size the couplings correctly.
Hang everything, snug the clamps and hangers enough to hold it in place, line it all up making sure you have clearance, mark the pipes (magic marker works well) so you know they have slid in far enough, start tightening it all down from front to back making the final alignments as you go.
As long as the old system comes off easy, working on your back will be the biggest challenge.

Cecil