Gardners vs. Waldrons exhaust
 

Not looking for a debate on quality as much as which company offers the closest to OEM as possible.
Also, don't need a full system, only over the axle pipes and tailpipes. Any options out there for buying partial systems? Have extensions, muffler, hangers & clamps.

Willing to pay for factory Service Replacement pipes, if there's any out there. This TA deserves it.

In hindsight, guess I could have worded this better. Soooooo, just give me your personal experience with replacing your exhaust with original type pipes.

All I know about Waldron is, the lead time on their systems can be three months or more. I thought about them myself, but I want my car right for summer and am putting in a Pypes 2.5" X-pipe setup in the unpolished stainless instead, those are readily available.

Waldron will sell parts seperately but Gardiner doesn't (unless they changed the policy recently). Both are very busy lately so long lead times but I believe Gardiner is faster now. Gardiner is much more authentic looking and sound quality is closer to factory but Waldron delivers a good quality system, just not up to the same detail level as Gardiner.

Waldrons
 

Waldron's lead time on "Pipes-Only" is not bad (I think it was 4-6 weeks last time I spoke with them). The longer lead times were for complete systems including mufflers from Canada.

I'm VERY please with the components from Waldron and the full systems from Gardner.

Correct over the axle pipes seems to be a hang up with " almost" every manufacturer. This is an area where " close" is NOT good enough as there is no room for errors.
That said; I have had Mineke muffler custom make those pipes on a couple 1970 Camaros I owned. The cars were on their lift, so test fitting was easier. Find a shop with a good custom guy on the bender.. If you have original rusty ones, could be a template too.

I am a Gardner " Fan Boy" though..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx3hN1kTvZo

Nice! Thanks for the vid.
Perfect tailpipe extension location too. Tucked up close to the body and slightly angled in towards the center.

My buddy who isn’t a restoration guy. But a really good performance (turbo) tuner knows the gardeners well .he says they are great people and really care a lot about what they do . That makes a big difference to me. But I have no experience myself. I do know the guys on yenko.net swear by them too.

Big fan of Gardner
Bought 2 systems from them. Perfect reproductions

Gardner Exhaust is your only choice.