For some reason, my exhaust system has no flanges - the entire thing from the catalytic converter back is all welded as one piece. I took it to a shop and they said that the broken pipe couldn't be welded back to the muffler since it had rusted "inside" the muffler - and the casing of the muffler is too thin of sheet metal to weld to - it would be really weak. So I'm going to likely buy a muffler from Advacne Auto parts - they have one that's only $50 by Maremont, and it looks like it has enough pipe for me to hacksaw down my old pipe enough to get these two to snugly fit together (in fact, the picture actually looks like it flanges out a little so i could fit one pipe inside the other.) My question is though - do I have to weld the two pipes together, or is there a permanent way of sealing them off and just clamping them together, with a pipe used as a coupling or directly? I know that the seal is important for back pressure and all that crap - but is a weld the only way? Any product suggestions?

thanks again