Doing things as slowly as humanly possible for no real reason

Last June, while I was at the OCTO show, I had a chat with MT, a guy from Vintage Speed in Taiwan.  We discussed the possibility of a modification to their exhaust for the Type 3 that would allow for the use of the upper/rear heat exchangers.  Twenty minutes later, I somehow walked away from that discussion with the belief that the existing model could be used with a modified adapter.  I socked that away in my memory and started planning.

Flash forward several months and I buy one of the exhausts directly from Vintage Speed because I was ready to get adapters fabbed up.

Ten minutes after opening the box, I realized that my plan was not going to work.  The span between holes was too great and the distance between the exhaust and the heat exchanger not great enough.  The pipe required to make this work would not be possible for me.  It's now for sale on both Facebook groups and on TheSamba.com.

The gap on the left is about 63mm and the gap on the right is about 40mm from center to center.  Short of giving up, I inquired about a custom exhaust and I'm now waiting for that exhaust to be manufactured and shipped to me.

The adapter still requires fabrication to match the flange angle because the two sides are not the same - but Vintage Speed has offered to cut a steel flange for me to weld to the adapter that'll be made to fit the stock upper/rear heat exchangers.

I'm hopeful but skeptical that this custom exhaust will be the solution to the late exhaust that's needed for Ferris.  Nigel, on the other hand, will retain the stock exhaust until I can come up with a solution for the early exhaust or I swap the car over to the later exhaust style if this custom exhaust winds up being a solution.  I'm hopeful that Vintage Speed is successful at creating the exhaust and more Type 3 owners will have a solution while retaining the stock heat system.

Short of this small project and finding proper rear seat brackets, not much has progressed with Ferris for quite some time.  I've learned to be 'okay' with the pace of the process in spite of my desire to have finished the car two years ago.