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What's with the lack of shops that'll do stainless exhaust???

73k5blazer

73k5blazer

End the H1B Program!
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I must have called over 15 places spanning a 50 mile radius. I found 1 shop that will bend a stainless exhaust system for me. He won't weld it though.
Grrrrrrr.....

I always find it amusing when then say "You don't need that, Aluminized is just fine, lasts for years!" Yeah, buh-bye.
Mabey in Texas, but not here. 2 years, tops. I put a brand new aluminized system on my '86 a few years back. I knew it wasn't gonna last more than a few years anyway, but after 2 winters here, it was literally, falling apart. Rusted through in 3 places, I had the muffler wired up.


But, no one was even willing to do it? What the heck. I think they're just pissed that all the OEM's now use stainless exhaust and their revenue stream from replacing exhaust systems every 2 years has dried up!
ANd he's not gonna weld anything. Nice. So, I guess my mig welder is gonna see new gas and wire in it's near future!!!
 
...maybe because you are the 1 out of hundreds of calls they will get asking for it.

...and then you are the 1 out of an even bigger number that might be willing to pay for it.

I would also imagine that since stainless would not be a common purchase their cost from the vendor is probably not competitive.

not hatin, just sayin
 
Two basic reasons. One, is the one you mentioned. Lack of return customers. But the other one, is lack of people able to weld stainless tubing, and the equipment to do it.

Your average muffler shop guy is not a certified welder. Nor could they afford to hire him if he was.
So, they don't want the responsibility of bending or welding your expensive stuff because they have to eat it if they screw it up.

Its not quite as bad if they use their own, but its still an expensive mistake when the bender, which is going to be old and worn, crimps a piece of stainless.

Plus, thin stainless is best welded with TIG, and most places don't have them. If you weld it yourself, be sure to back flush it with a separate gas source to prevent sugaring on the back side of the weld.
 
I hear ya on the aluminized crap. My '85 has it and a few weeks ago while I was under looking around, I grabbed a bend in the tailpipe and squeezed the tubing. The rusty tube just collapsed and crumbled into a million little pieces onto the ground.
 
Yeah, welding stainless was going to be a research project for me. I'm sure there's a reason he's not going to weld it. I've never done stainless, but I can read and follow instructions. It shouldn't be much welding. The only thing that *really* needs welded is the o2 bung for the ramjet engine.
If he does his job right, it'll be 4 pieces with the only joints at the mufflers.
 
I've gotten usually about 5 years out of a good Aluminized system....carbon steel about 2 years max and its getting holes in it. So are you sure your getting Aluminized pipe?
 
I can't say I checked it, a shop put it on. it had that slight discoloration that alumized has over regular steel. I did drive alot, back and forth to central ohio from mid-michigan every week.
That's always been my experience with it though, even going back, well, forever. Had a system put on my '76 malibu. lasted all of 2 or 3 years. same thing on a 75 c10 I had. same thing on an '84 regal I had. every one of them fell apart within 2 or 3 years tops.
 
dam. you would think with the longer distances it would last longer too.:dunno:
 
The alumunized system on my 1970 Impala that I had put on 6 years ago is still in great shape!! Of course, it's registered historical and sits in the garage 99% of the time, only driven about 500-900mi/year and of course never in salt storm winter day.
So, I guess, it can last!!!
 
76zimmer said:
dam. you would think with the longer distances it would last longer too.:dunno:
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I think it's those 4 hours drives on the nasty days, where it's 30 degrees, snowing lightly, but the whole time, and the roads are salted the whole way. Your behind trucks and other vehicles englufed in a massive whole vehicle spray. 4 hours of constant heavy salt spray. You get there and it gets colder and your brown truck is literally all white. I swear, sometimes, it seems I could hear the metal being eaten !!!
"The Langoliers are coming!!!!" :rotfl::rotfl:
 
Try to find a roll of ER-308, unless you know for sure what alloy the pipe is. That is a good general purpose alloy that will successfully weld most all the 300 series alloys.

"Sugaring" is slightly less a problem with MIG than TIG.
Molten Stainless will crystallize when exposed to air causing a weakness in the weld. On the side you are welding, the molten metal is protected by the Argon your welder is covering the area with.
But, on the back side, if you get good penetration, there will be a small area of molten metal not protected, and it will sugar.

The way to prevent it, is to purge the pipe as you weld with Argon. But, normally that takes a second regulator and some hose. You would tape up the ends of the pipe, put the hose in one end, and punch a small hole in the tape on the other.

Run the Argon through until all the air is purged out and then let a small amount flow as you weld.

In this case, you might get by, or at least improve things by doing the taping, stick the welder tip in one end, and let the gas flow until you are sure has filled the hose.
Then seal up the ends and weld.

Make sure, of course that there is a small vent for the pressure caused by the gas heating up to vent out.

But be warned, it is real easy to blow holes in those pipes. Keep the amps down, and watch the feed rate.

I would figure that the only place that really needs welding is the bung. If the muffler and pipes have slip joints, I would clamp them.
Welding is nicer, but its not worth the effort to buy wire and teach yourself to weld the thin stuff for this one job.

And if you can take the piece and the bung to a welding shop, they would weld it right and you could clamp everything else.

Cheaper than doing it yourself, but probably not as much fun.
 
Not sure where you are from but there was a friend of mine that has a shop in Hastings Mi. I know he has done stainless, he was doing one at the time he did my '78. Did a really nice job to, took his time. Dont have his number on me but I have his card, can find it for ya if you would like.
 
Well, thanks, appreciate it.
But, I got this guy lined up tomorrow. I shouldn't have said no one was willing to do it, I contradicted myself there. One place I found, he's gonna do it. He's booked his shop (he owns it, and his one helper). He has done stainless before, he said he was just opposed to welding it, probably because he doesn't have the right welder or setup to do the welding. He does have a really nice newer industrial bender though, not your typical muffler man machine. He's really good at fitting and bending and takin' his time, which is the main characteristic I was looking for. He said it was probably gonna take him the better part of the day. I'm supposed to be there at 8am. Trucks already on the trailer!!!
Perhaps I should have asked a week ago while I was calling around!! Thanks though!
 
73k5blazer said:
I think it's those 4 hours drives on the nasty days, where it's 30 degrees, snowing lightly, but the whole time, and the roads are salted the whole way. Your behind trucks and other vehicles englufed in a massive whole vehicle spray. 4 hours of constant heavy salt spray. You get there and it gets colder and your brown truck is literally all white. I swear, sometimes, it seems I could hear the metal being eaten !!!
"The Langoliers are coming!!!!" :rotfl::rotfl:
Click to expand...

You nailed it right there, it's the exposure to the salt spray that does it in. I have a little C10 with headers and a lifted 4x4 Burb with headers, and the headers were installed within a couple months of each other. Both trucks have been driven every day of every winter since then. The C10 is low to the ground and driven in the city, the headers are still in fine shape. The Burb is high off the ground and driven on the highway a lot, the exposure to the salt spray has caused 3 of the primaries to blow out in the last month. The passenger side header literally looks like swiss cheese.
 
munepit said:
Y'all need to be my neighbors and move to California!!!!!
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Hell no! I'll never live in Cali. No amount of money would convince me to move and live there. Not only no, but Hell no!
 
We are an exhaust shop. To tell you the truth, no one wants to pay for it. We don't stock stainless, and rarely ever do we have people ask for it. Seems that aluminized tubing costs too much. Everyone thinks that tubing is cheap, but if steel goes up, doesn't tubing?

We are glad to bend stainless, when we do, we go all the way. Stainless hangers, stainless clamps, we even outfitted our old welder with stainless wire and gas. We feel you should go all the way.

But no one wants to pay the extra costs for stainless.

Also, most exhaust rusts from the inside out, between moisture, sulfur, and carbon( which will retain moisture). You can paint your exhaust with high temp paint, and it will help, definitely where its welded. Best thing you can do, make sure your exhaust dries out, short distances will kill your exhaust from the inside out.
 
Best thing you can do, make sure your exhaust dries out, short distances will kill your exhaust from the inside out.
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Exactly. I have a standing rule, unless something drastic intervenes, if I crank one of my vehicles, it runs until the engine is up to full op temp, and the exhaust pipe is dry at the end.
If possible, I drive it down the road a ways. This keeps the exhaust system from rusting out, and keeps the sludge in the engine to a minimum.

I had a friend who bought a new Ford pickup many years ago. He had a problem with one of his legs, and did not like to walk far.
The pen for our hunting dogs was bout 600 yards from his house, and he would crank his truck at least every other day if not every day, drive to the dog pen, make sure they had water and feed, then crank up and drive back.

The entire exhaust system except for the manifolds rotted out on that truck in less than a year.
Ford replaced it under warranty. I went down to look at it at the shop. Most of the pipe was still shiny on the outside, but you could stick your finger through it anywhere.

I asked what the heck happened, and they asked me if it got driven real short distances a lot.
They also showed me the gobs of sludge you could see when you took the oil filler cap off the valve cover.

They flushed the engine out, it only had about 8K on it, and he started driving it to the pen, checking everything, then continuing on around the block or just going for a drive in the woods.

As far as I know, it never had another thing done to the exhaust in the next 10 years he owned it.
 
The exhaust place that did my S10 after the V8 swap tried to push stainless on me but it would have doubled the cost of the system. If I was keeping the truck I would have sprung for it but its for sale now :deal:

Its seems the big commercial performance exhaust shops in my area all do stainless. I guess there is enough demand for it? :dunno:
 
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