Exhaust fab. (- cats) anyone built their own ?

[rev zundfolge]

My backround- I love cars/ working on them and this is my first BMW. A time capsule 1995 540i/6 The exhaust looks like it could use some help- Quite small andway silent. There must be some more free ponies in there! Now, I'm not spending $1000 for a cat-back system. Honestly a waste of money. For $10 you can get a disc of an exhaust you like the sound of, and drop it in your CD changer on repeat..... What I want to know is: Has anyone built their own from ready available components. How well did it work and did gutting or removing the cats help a great deal ?

Just because you own a BMW doesn't mean you have to pay others to do your work Besides some of us just love doing it ourselves.

Gimmie a welder !