(backstory) Well, my friend Joe has an '01 Civic that he is trying to turn into a hot rod. (Yes, I'm mentoring him as how 'not' to rice it out) So we have started as of late working on the exhaust- he bought a header and a down pipe off of someone on his civic forum, put them on and of course they sounded like azz with the stock muffler and resonator. Oh yeah, it was supposed to be a cat... but turns out it was just a high flow resonator that replaced the cat (popped that 'catalyst efficiency below threshold' code real quick...oops 
). So we take it to an exhaust shop that put on the cross pipe for my exhaust and did a muffler for my other friend Mike's truck. Haven't been there a while and the guy I normally worked with wasn't there. So my friend asks for prices for a mid pipe and muffler. He is quoted $240 for a flowmaster, and $285 for a borla, then $45 for a tip to be welded on. He decides to go with the Borla and says "So, $330 is the total for the Borla set up?" and the migrant worker running the shop at the time says 'yeah'. So my friends says alright, let's do it. They start working and he calls me to come down to check things out since I'm THE car guy of our group. I come down and the guys are bending the mid pipe. They bend it up and fit it up to the car, then weld the pipe directly onto the flange of the 'cat'!! I should have stopped them right there but I just asked why they did that. Apparently they don't source flanges and didn't have one to fit a 3 bolt 2.25" flange. Apparently this exhaust shop doesn't carry flanges like that... except of course for the ones back there on the back wall. 
To shorten this up a bit... these were the problems that occured
*Pipe welded to flange on 'cat'... essentially making exhaust from muffler to the header one piece.
*Thought muffler looked strangely familiar while mocking it up... I was right, they were using a flowmaster instead of a borla
*Halfway through with job the worker asks Joe to come inside for paper work, instead of the $285 for the flowmaster or even the $330 for the borla, the bill is for $370. With a labor charge not posted anywhere in the shop.
*Pipe we find out later is bent completely wrong, ending up not fitting into large recessed area alloted for it and banging around when driving. (THink about trying to drop a bridge lengthwise into a gorge, and somehow twisting it to link both sides at an angle).
*Tip that is welded on is of bolt on design (autoparts store type). I ask the guy what he is gonna do with the holes left when the bolts are taken out. Apparently, this genius decided that it would be smarter to slag around the bolts and size adjusters than to take them out and fill the holes...
*Because pipe is bent wrong they have to make a connection above the back lower control arm. This is done by expanding a pipe a little larger than needed so that the other pipe can slide in at an angle. Then, because he cannot take the midpipe off, he has to weld around the pipe within about a 3-4" area of space next to the frame and suspension.
*After he finishes he drops it down and asks Joe to come into the office for the paperwork. I tell them to hold on and let me inspect it. He raises the car back up, and I find 5!!! leaks around the welds... this is after the guy had already gone through and run is hands around them. I found 2 at that ghetto rigged angle connection and 3 around the slagged bolts on the tip. I told him to put his hand over the end to provide backpressure and the first thing he asks is 'why?'. He does it and I find the leaks then tell him to run his hands over again while I do it. He says he doesn't feel anything (using the palm of his hands). So I tell him to cover the tip again and take his even more migrant (no-speak-a-da-english) helper and show 'him' the spots. He feels them and concurs with me. So the guy 'fixes' them, and when I say fix I mean throw slag at them until they stop.
*We talk to the owner. Apparantly the pipe on flange is how they do things... but if we find a flange, they will weld it on. If they pipe is bent wrong, then they will fix it. And as far as the price mistakes, he will 'look into' if Joe was charged excess labor because he doesn't know what prices his guys are charging or at what rate Oh yeah, and they don't even stock Borla exhausts... even though hey have a large Borla Authorized dealer sign and are quoting prices. We'll see what happens today.
(Ranting Swede Mode---OFF)
ANYWAYS, I felt really bad about recommending that shop to my friend so I was looking at possibly getting the parts to make one for him. I currently don't know how to MIG weld, but alot of guys from work do and Joe said he's decent also. I was wondering what y'all thought the possibilities of success might be for getting the tubing from like summit or jegs and fabbing up an exhaust? His is pretty simple, from the end of the down pipe in the centerline of the car, the exhaust needs one curve over to the recessed area, one compound curve up into and facing down the recess, then a straight pipe into the muffler and a tip and that's about it. What do y'all think? I priced out the materials (just the exhaust parts) and with a new muffler we're looking at about $170 or so, probably no more than $200, though knowing us it'll be more like $250 in the end no matter what. What do y'all think, possible? (Oh yeah, he'd sell the exhaust they are fixing now to try and recoup some money)
If that went well, I was also gonna look into fabbing the exhaust for my car as well. I think it would be fairly easy too (not saying easy, just not as difficult) since I want a side exhaust that doesn't have to go over the axle. I checked out the picture that mustangdepot has of their spintech one and I'm wondering if y'all think it would be worth not paying like $630 for theirs plus the x-pipe compared with making my own?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
The Swede
). So we take it to an exhaust shop that put on the cross pipe for my exhaust and did a muffler for my other friend Mike's truck. Haven't been there a while and the guy I normally worked with wasn't there. So my friend asks for prices for a mid pipe and muffler. He is quoted $240 for a flowmaster, and $285 for a borla, then $45 for a tip to be welded on. He decides to go with the Borla and says "So, $330 is the total for the Borla set up?" and the migrant worker running the shop at the time says 'yeah'. So my friends says alright, let's do it. They start working and he calls me to come down to check things out since I'm THE car guy of our group. I come down and the guys are bending the mid pipe. They bend it up and fit it up to the car, then weld the pipe directly onto the flange of the 'cat'!! I should have stopped them right there but I just asked why they did that. Apparently they don't source flanges and didn't have one to fit a 3 bolt 2.25" flange. Apparently this exhaust shop doesn't carry flanges like that... except of course for the ones back there on the back wall. To shorten this up a bit... these were the problems that occured
*Pipe welded to flange on 'cat'... essentially making exhaust from muffler to the header one piece.
*Thought muffler looked strangely familiar while mocking it up... I was right, they were using a flowmaster instead of a borla
*Halfway through with job the worker asks Joe to come inside for paper work, instead of the $285 for the flowmaster or even the $330 for the borla, the bill is for $370. With a labor charge not posted anywhere in the shop.
*Pipe we find out later is bent completely wrong, ending up not fitting into large recessed area alloted for it and banging around when driving. (THink about trying to drop a bridge lengthwise into a gorge, and somehow twisting it to link both sides at an angle).
*Tip that is welded on is of bolt on design (autoparts store type). I ask the guy what he is gonna do with the holes left when the bolts are taken out. Apparently, this genius decided that it would be smarter to slag around the bolts and size adjusters than to take them out and fill the holes...
*Because pipe is bent wrong they have to make a connection above the back lower control arm. This is done by expanding a pipe a little larger than needed so that the other pipe can slide in at an angle. Then, because he cannot take the midpipe off, he has to weld around the pipe within about a 3-4" area of space next to the frame and suspension.
*After he finishes he drops it down and asks Joe to come into the office for the paperwork. I tell them to hold on and let me inspect it. He raises the car back up, and I find 5!!! leaks around the welds... this is after the guy had already gone through and run is hands around them. I found 2 at that ghetto rigged angle connection and 3 around the slagged bolts on the tip. I told him to put his hand over the end to provide backpressure and the first thing he asks is 'why?'. He does it and I find the leaks then tell him to run his hands over again while I do it. He says he doesn't feel anything (using the palm of his hands). So I tell him to cover the tip again and take his even more migrant (no-speak-a-da-english) helper and show 'him' the spots. He feels them and concurs with me. So the guy 'fixes' them, and when I say fix I mean throw slag at them until they stop.
*We talk to the owner. Apparantly the pipe on flange is how they do things... but if we find a flange, they will weld it on. If they pipe is bent wrong, then they will fix it. And as far as the price mistakes, he will 'look into' if Joe was charged excess labor because he doesn't know what prices his guys are charging or at what rate
Oh yeah, and they don't even stock Borla exhausts... even though hey have a large Borla Authorized dealer sign and are quoting prices. We'll see what happens today.(Ranting Swede Mode---OFF)
ANYWAYS, I felt really bad about recommending that shop to my friend so I was looking at possibly getting the parts to make one for him. I currently don't know how to MIG weld, but alot of guys from work do and Joe said he's decent also. I was wondering what y'all thought the possibilities of success might be for getting the tubing from like summit or jegs and fabbing up an exhaust? His is pretty simple, from the end of the down pipe in the centerline of the car, the exhaust needs one curve over to the recessed area, one compound curve up into and facing down the recess, then a straight pipe into the muffler and a tip and that's about it. What do y'all think? I priced out the materials (just the exhaust parts) and with a new muffler we're looking at about $170 or so, probably no more than $200, though knowing us it'll be more like $250 in the end no matter what. What do y'all think, possible? (Oh yeah, he'd sell the exhaust they are fixing now to try and recoup some money)
If that went well, I was also gonna look into fabbing the exhaust for my car as well. I think it would be fairly easy too (not saying easy, just not as difficult) since I want a side exhaust that doesn't have to go over the axle. I checked out the picture that mustangdepot has of their spintech one and I'm wondering if y'all think it would be worth not paying like $630 for theirs plus the x-pipe compared with making my own?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
The Swede
