I finally got around to replacing my rusted out muffler with a new one. I don’t like exhaust clamps so I welded in the new one myself with my 50amp 110v stick welder using 1/16″ 7014 rods. It worked pretty well even though most folks will tell you to use a MIG setup and that you can’t stick weld exhaust pipes – I beg to differ and am happy with the results I achieved.
I decided to do it as a side exit exhaust because I like the way it looks and it was easy to do. Doing it as a side exit removed about 10 lbs of extra pipe as well as keep the tailpipe from getting crunched if you back into something like a snowbank.

Here is the old rusty muffler from my 2000 Ford Ranger…it looks like it has gills and all the exhaust comes out the side instead of the tailpipe.