Fabricated Exhaust on … a Grand Caravan!

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The product looks awesome sitting on the shop floor and even better while on the vehicle. I did have to endure a bit of teasing about putting this performance exhaust on a Grand Caravan in a performance shop. All in good fun – and all recognizing that this exhaust will likely outlast the vehicle it is mounted on.
 

The cut just after the catalytic converter but before the diameter reduction was carefully done to ensure that the flow was continued thus ensuring ease of fabrication. AES Auto pointed out that by avoiding 90° bends and sticking with 45° or less bends that this would not only flow better, but this softer angle would not be quite as much of a hot spot as a sharper bend. The stainless steel flex pipe from Vibrant Performance was welded on at this point with a flange on the back side. This would allow for easy removal in the future is so needed.

 

I'm not a welder, but sure appreciate those who do. For the first weld affixing the new stainless to the existing 7 year old pipe extending from the catalytic converter, I believe that a MIG welder was used by Paulo. My assignment was to clean up the existing pipe to allow the best weld possible. The rest of the welding was done with a TIG setup. Paulo asked if I wanted show quality welds… I pointed out that this is a Grand Caravan. I want quality, strength, and a speedy job. This van won't be in any show and shines!

You can see how the floor of the van has been significantly altered to provide ease of access for a wheel chair. The gas tank is just under the driver/passenger compartment.

 

With the flex pipe in place, it was moving on to clean welding and making good time. Well, pretty good time until we hit the area around the rear wheels. That slowed us up a little bit. That box centre top is the gas tank.
 
A couple of small pieces with slight angles at each end were then welded in with a small section from the 180° pipe used to ensure that our 45° turn to the back of the van was completed. This then gave us an almost straight run to the back of the van. Here, we installed a stainless steel resonator that was tilted to give a ton of clearance with the gas tank. The straight pipe then runs alongside the frame of the wheelchair bay. 
 

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