1980 yamaha xj650 carburetor air pods and exhaust

Hi I'm new to this forum and overall very new to motorcycles! I bought my first motorcycle a month ago which was a 1980 Yamaha xj650....I'm basically learning from step one and putting a good amount of hours on YouTube...asking people and websites....right now im inthe process of taking every thing down to pieces (all tthat's left is taking of the drive shaft so I can remove the engine off the frame to paint it which is a pain in the ass getting those bolts loose under the rubber boot -__-) right now I'm at the carburator taking it all apart andcleaning the ish out of it ....previous owner must of never cleaned them cause they're ridiculously gunky and full of rust....but anyways....they are clean now and even painted! Just waiting for the carb rebuild kit of the gasket seals and jet screws...I was thinking of adding air pods to my carbs as well just simply because the looks...but based on what I been reading I'd prefer to leave the stock airbox ....my question is this....is there a way maybe I can add the pod filters just for looks? I'm sure there must be a way maybe like cutting off the actual pod filter or something....also the exhaust is basically garbage lol I wanted to add like a straight exhaust to the bike but don't know if that would give me problems or do I need a specific exhaust? Any information is helpful and can't wait to begin this journey with the xj