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I custom fabricated the exhaust from 2.5" mandrel bends from summit racing. The muffler is a perforated core dynomax thrush glass pack. I initially ran a side exit in front of the right rear wheel to save time after fabricating the rest of the turbo system. I made sure to use rubber mounts at the tranny to allow for heat expansion of the exhaust and turbo. I always use stainless band clamps for their neat appearance and because they don't crimp the pipes, which makes dissassembly much easier. Custom fabricating an exhaust from individual mandrel bends is very time consuming. The process is to cut the length of bend or straight pipe needed on the chop saw, clean the cut, mark the bend positioning, removed the pipes and tack them together on the workbench, then reinstall and check for proper fit.
I fabricated mounts for the muffler to bolt to the stock heat shield studs. This design eventually failed, pulling the studs out of the floor of the car. I later fabricated a 1 piece design that bridges both sides to eliminate this problem.
Here's the original exhaust after paint.
The side pipe was mounted to the rear subframe mount. It worked well and sounded awesome, but it only left me about 2.5" ground clearance. I ran the side pipe for almost 2 years before I got sick of dragging over everything and took it off.
I got side of the side pipe and slapped a turn down on for a while but it was too loud for daily use.
I finally got around to completing the exhaust with my original plan to split it to duals pipes to fill out the 323i rear valance. I started by fabricating the pipe from the muffer over the subframe Y splitter so I could determine how much space it would take up and the best angle to go under the half shaft.
Once I had the splitter fabricated I it was time to set the angles for the pipes. I left both sides of the splitter pipe long until I could determine where the tail pipes would line up. I started with the driver's side pipe, setting the angle, level and alignment with the rear valance. Once the driver's side was set I duplicated the measurements, angles and bends as closely as possible. I tacked the passenger side pipe while hanging on the vehicle to make sure I got the angle perfect.
I welded full length tail pipes to the splitter to aid in positioning, but I wanted the option to install mufflers in the future and the flexibility of slip joints, so I cut them off, then started welding up all the joints. Shown is the center pipe and splitter pipe.
The last step was the tail pipes. They only required a slight angle for them to exit the rear of the car squarely. I bent the hangers using 1/4" dowel rod. The upper hangers are just 1/4" dowel welded to flat stock. They are bolted through the old US bumper shock holes in the frame rails. Once the pipes were installed again all that was left was to position the tips. The tips I found had bolt-on flanges that I cut off.
Once everything was welded up it was time to paint the pipes.
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