I've made several negative references to the local shop that fabricated and installed a set of dual exhaust in my flathead powered '48 coupe. I guess it wasn't obvious to the fabricator that the bends he made to go over the rear axle were going to come into direct conflict with the movement of the wishbone. Both sides were crushed halfway closed. Several hundred dollars down the toilet. Then, there were several positive comments on here about Waldron's Exhaust in Centreville, MI, so I called them. There was a lengthy conversation with a very pleasant lady named Ruth. She asked me for specifics about the installation and told me that I could receive the finished product in 12 weeks on August 12. I had to travel to Michigan on family business about that time, so I arranged to pick up the new exhaust system on the 13th as I was going home. After driving several hours on two-lane roads, between thousands of acres of 7-foot-tall corn, I arrived at a bright red building in the middle of downtown Centreville. Ruth had me sign the invoice and then offered a tour of the shop. I took pictures. Bright red shop Ruth, pleasant personality and a great laugh Just a small part of OEM exhaust pipes that have been collected over several decades and used for patterns A small part of a large collection of OEM mufflers used for templates, so that the inlets and outlets are oriented correctly and in the correct locations. John, the boss and the guy who makes it all work. Burt & Mary Waldron were the original owners. Patterns for H and Y pipes Back home, my new pipes for the '48. According to John, the extension pipe, (the one between the head pipes), for the driver's side will clear the steering with room to spare. Installed pics will come later and I think I will be pleased. Just under the right side of the table is the undented Craftsman toolbox, with tray, I found for $10 at an antique store on the way to Waldron's.
Waldron's Exhaust systems are fantastic; I once got an Avinode system for my '68 Ford Mustang—the sound was absolutely incredible. Apparently, that system was available through Ford dealers for a short time until complaints about the noise level led to it being pulled from the market. Waldron's has since reissued that exhaust system, replicating it exactly. Best regards, Harald.
Nice of u(buyer) to show the inner workings of a nice run exhaust shop in Michigan;I am sure they can use the notoriety and the exposure to the HAMB followers. Sixty plus years of making flatheads perform better than average and the exhaust system is equally important as the engine builder,but often overlooked in the grand scheme of building a decent driver. FLATHEADS FOREVER!!!
If you're referring to Ruth, she runs the front end and is rarely out from behind her desk. If you enlarge the picture of John at the bending machine, you'll see that his shoes have safety toes.
Footwear be damned, the purpose of this thread was to show the process and product. Going back through the pictures, if you look at the one of John at the bending machine and look on the table on the right, you'll see one of the OEM pipes next to one John made. I'd say that is just about as close to the original as it could get.
So far I have never been able to find anyone who can do a good exhaust system around a wishbone. So I do my own now and I'm very happy with the results.
I have been using Waldron's for years. I have never had a problem with any of the pipes they did for me. Nice people to deal with.
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