Scott H…Last year I worked very closely with Jim at Red’s headers. There was an issue with the dual set-up that the tailpipes were not correct. Together, we resolved this issue, however, on the supplied Smithy’s 22”, it just causes more problems in fitting as you are probably experiencing. These 22” mufflers go in the direct placement of the original Ford muffler, but the Ford piece is much shorter. Having a shorter muffler, say 18”, it would remove the problem of having the clamps jammed in the frame cross members area….front and back area where tight angle members meet. I crawled under my ’35 and took some photos of your questioned area. Personally I do not like the conventional metal hardware brackets supplied since I try to make the installation and brackets look original. The blue rubber donuts supplied with these brackets are a direct replacement with the original Ford. ( Black would have been nicer ) What I am doing is using all of the original ’35 Ford mounting brackets. I bought from Mac’s the replacement rubber doughnuts and found that they were rather expensive ( but, they are black ) These repros and the blue ones from Reds are a similar fit to the originals.
As for the fitting thru the frame brace, yes, you have to heat and tweak the pipes to fit centered in the hole. I use the original clamp to just hold the pipes and a separate clamp to attach the muffler to the pipe. It’s all just too cramped to make a neat job where the system won’t be banging on the frame members. I use the illustration of the muffler system from the ’35 – ’36 Ford book ( a must have ) to locate all of the clamps in the proper area. For the driver side, I purchased on e-Pay a complete original set
( lucky to find as Mac’s no longer supplies these repro parts ) and all can be used save for one that needs to be mirrored to fit ( cut & re-weld ). Hopes all of this helps. Maybe someone else can tune in to Jim at Red’s to extend the pipes and supply shorter mufflers….Smithy’s shortest one at 22” is too long…..Robert
