I took a low end approach that ended up costing more than I had planed.I had to replace the headers almost as soon as I obtained my car. The headers had been wrapped with fiberglass. They looked great when I bought the car and underhood temps were tolerable.The wrap had caused the pipes to cristalize.After the blowout cracks were every where.No saving the headers.Mufflers were just glasspacks that had givenup long ago.
I had Everett Morrision build a whole set.I paid $70 extra for the lowback option.After thinking about my choice I considered adding a set of Car Chemestry disc unitsIn the event that some local cop deceided that in his oppinion my pipes were too loud.as low backs are supposed to be a little louder.When I examined my sisepipes I didn't see anything that resembled the lowback mufflers that I had paid for. I called EM ,they appolagized and shipped the low back mufflers.I looked around and deceided to go with Burn's 3 1/2" stainless V clamps. I ordered a few sets at a time .I ended up ordering eight sets wich would have gotten a discount if ordered at the same time. I had the flanges tigged to pipes mufflers and turn outs. I have a set of regular mufflers ,a set of Low Backs and a set of straight pipes. The turn out pipes can be changed ,turned or eliminated or even put on collector. I can installl or remove the Car Chemistry disc units with just wrenches. I had everything ceramic coated.The arrangements are infanent.I thought I was quite clever.I havent heard a thing from the cops yet either. I made about five thousand in overtime that spring and summer and that is all I have to show .The headers ,collectors and turn out and straight pipes are coated inside also.I can't picture burning out any thing. I whish I had a tig machine now.And the UPS truck stops here out of habbit.

Alarms!
 

If noise is setting off a car alarm, it is not installed or adjusted properly. The shock sensor is supposed to detect someone jacking the car or removing a wheel. It should not trigger on anything less.

I can start my LoBak equipped, 12.5:1 compression 427 right beside my truck, inside my garage, without setting off the alarm.
An alarm that falses all the time is nothing but a nuisance.
:mad:

As far as loud cars go, they're fine when used as toys, but I can't imagine putting up with one daily. I value my hearing more than that. ;)
It always irks me when I hear some jackass romping on an unmuffled Harley or fart-pipe equipped jap car late at night. Whatever happened to common courtesy???

Later,

Some late information
 

Going on four years ago, I replaced my old pipes with a set of the "ceramic mat" sidepipes from Stainless Specialties. Before I sent in my check, I talked with a gentleman from New York who had actually tested both of the Stainless Specialties types (baffled vs. ceramic) against open headers on a dyno. For info, his car was equipped with (I believe I recall correctly) a stock dimension 427 running dual Holleys. This gentleman kindly sent me copies of the test run sheets. Bottom line: the delta between the open headers and the ceramic pipes was only a few hp and no difference on noise level, while the difference between the baffled pipes and the open headers was on the order of 45 hp and a noise level difference of about 5 dB. Noise levels were measured at 20 feet from the end of the pipes. My conclusion from his data was that the baffled pipes cost a lot of hp for not a lot of muffling (at least on the big block FE), so I went with the ceramic pipes.

FWIW, the wife and I use ear plugs when we ride. I have always worn ear plugs while flying (going on 30 years in helicopters), and have found that the EAR brand yellow foam plugs seem to work the best.