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I think there's enough brass there to have every pikey within ten miles chasing after me, it's not pretty but sanded down and painted will look fine, note Jez who did the work left the sump plug in with the plastic washer (ah that's what the smell was) and here's a comparison to standard

also remembered to take a piccie of the Manifold Bypass connector I had to make

better than new eh? well the original was a bit of pressed tin.
Been doing more on the exhausts today and can't really aford to get bogged down at this stage with re-designing everything so will go for now with what I can do, and allow myself 4 weeks for fettling afterwards.
Here's the problem with the rear section

(sorry about picture quality) you can just make out the cross-member that I need to miss, if I move the system back 65mm I can lift the silencer up another 30mm, that's how it was with the single pipe system I originally had.
And here's the updated drivers side exhaust header

this will have to be cut shorter and the flexi fitted prior to it dropping down through the gap between the chassis and the gearbox.
And here's the other header from under the car with flexi stuck on

This will have to do for now, it's a bit low, but still level with the bottom of the Bell-housing. I've routed it to follow the chassis rails either side of the tunnel, and can't see where else I can put it to improve ground-clearance. Will now need to order some more sections from the bloke on Ebay to complete the system. Another problem to overcome is the fixing point at the rear end where the tailpipes come out, these use BL Mini exhaust rubbers and fix to a piece of 3mm angle ( Jez came to the rescue again with this) welded to the rear-most cross-member, only way I can see of doing this is to cut out some of the glass fibre in the boot, weld in the extra bracket, then replace and repair the hole. The same rubbers are also used to hang the silencers from a bracket in the middle under the prop-shaft, drilling an extra hole here was not a problem, but I was concerned about the weight of the silencers hanging from a single rubber. So a trip to the exhaust fitting place down the road secured me 2 larger fittings much more capable of doing the job. (for reference they're from a Renault)
That's all for now folks, think I'll go and get hard earned shower followed by a trip to the pub, it's either that or watch Brokeback Mountain on telly, and as I've already got a sore arse from crawling around under the car all day, I think I'll give it a miss

back boxes all lined up, must remember to tidy up more as I can't find the stainless clamps I bought last year

and here's the tailpipes, tucked up nice and tight, notice the marks where the pipes used to fit, now all moved back a bit and fits much better

speaks for itself really

this is the drivers side front, not a lot of room eh ! you can see the bracket has been removed from the middle of the boxes (more on that later) so the system will actually move up another 20mm from here
same side from above engine bay, will move this over a bit before clamping it up

passenger side from engine bay, you can just see the flexi poking out from the chassis, it's not a pretty job but it's only until I can get a stainless system made up to match the rear end (next year) and the angles are quite complicated so the collector is a bit of a patch work. The bracket I was raving about has had to be removed from the middle of the boxes, I made a vital error in thinking that the tolerances would be to engineering standards, but alas no, either the chassis is not quite the same both sides or the exhaust deviates, probably a combination of both so will re-make the bracket to fit the exhaust where it hangs best. Also the new welder I bought has taken to welding intermittently so everything comes out like it's joined up dots (I've got a mate with a Pro Mig Welder so will borrow that next time)
Bought a new fuel pump but think before I do anything else I'll have to wrap those fuel pipes with some Exhaust Wrap. The tunnel is likely to get a bit warm but then again no matter where you route the system the heat will be an issue so I'll move the electrics at the same time, also I'll move the battery to the front and get rid of the long 'power sapping' red cable. Pub shuts at 11pm tonight so I'm off to drown my sorrows. I recon I've still got 2 weeks left to finish it and have a month to drive it round and fettle any problems, I admit I was so tired on Sunday night that I nearly went to sleep under the car so by the time it's on the road I should be due another holiday ( or a nervous breakdown )
cheers all

the cable needs to be adjusted correctly yet, but it does work and the socket fits the ball (just). wish I hadn't pushed that cable fully into the bracket though, I can never get them out again regardless of what tool the Haynes book of lies tells you to make. Kev the Windows (mate from the pub) gave me some old ball sockets from a Lada which fit a treat, but there's no way of fitting them to a cable as they have a threaded rod in the end. I'll put them into my stock of parts I'll never be able to find again when I really need them.
and here's couple of pictures of the alternator, this will do for now, but is actually really solid

and a final one of the exhaust all fitted, you can see the bracket I made in the middle of the 2 boxes, this gives an extra 25 to 30mm ground clearance and moves the boxes into the gap behind the cross-member.
Exhaust courtesy of Jonny Terrano, you can get better than a Quick Fit Fitter, but it did take 2 attempts as last night ended in failure, better than new eh !
you can also see the hole I had to cut in the boot floor to weld the other rear bracket on, the missing piece will fix back in with some P40 fibreglass filler. Tailpipes will have to be shortened by about 50mm and are not fully fitted

We have gone all professional now and written a list to complete, starting with the sump tomorrow, that'll be fun then. Fortunately, John is smaller than me (in all directions) so he's quite useful under a car and just to make the evening complete he also spotted the new tube of exhaust assembly paste I didn't think I had. bugger and poo !