I'm pretty new to this stuff. My dad gave me his '85 pickup when I got my license and I realized the potential badassness of it. Unfortunately, I know little to nothing about anything automotive other than what my dad taught me or what I have discovered from tinkering around. The current matter at hand would be welding. I know it's pretty much necessary for developing a decent rig. My muffler has some holes in it and I know it's going to fall off soon, but the bolts are totally rusted on with no hopes of being removed. I would like to put a glasspack on it (call me an idiot if you'd like, I'm only 17) and I know I can't achieve this without doing some welding. What kind of welder would I want to use to just do some general exhaust welding or maybe even some minor body work? Keep in mind that I'm totally new to all of this

 

buy a glasspack and take it to a local guy for him to weld on

 

x2

glasspacks are fine. I've run them on a previous truck and I liked it okay. Certainly cheaper, although a little louder. But still not bad. You shouldn't try welding it yourself if you are new to this stuff though. Kind of tricky to get the airtight welds up on the top of the exhaust. You should be able to get a local guy to do it for pretty cheap.

 

i tried to stick weld a crack in the end of my header and i just burnt a hole through it.

 

either too hot or your pipe is rusted thin.

 

I just bought a little 100$ stick welder from wal-mart and it worked just fine to do my exhaust with. just go find some crappy pipe to get in some practice first. mainly getting airtight welds in areas you cant see.

 

If its just the muffler your replacing, you can just use exhaust clamps. They bolt on. And you can use the hangers that hook to the clamps too. Really no need for welding.

 

i run a header and glassback. nothing wrong with it.

i needed a flange to bolt the glass back to the header flange, so i traced out the shape on a peice of diamond plate. Cut it out and welded a 8 inch peice of 2.5" pipe to it, stuck it inside the cherrybomb glassback. (it slid right in and it was tight) and walla it bolted right up.