Hey there H.A.M.B.ers iam new here and have building A 32 highboy for A couple years now. Can anyone steer me to A custom shop to put A stainless steel exhaut on my car ? I live in weatherly thats just south of Hazleton Pa.and dont wanna trailer it really far if I dont need to. I plan on showing the car so it needs to be nice. THANKS
Verocious Motorsports in MD. sells 304 ss exhaust tubing in various diameters and lengths in either mill grade or polished. Afterwards, any reputable muffler shop that does custom exhaust can bend it to fit. I have purchased tubing from them several times. Good quality tubing available in .049 or .065 wall, made in the USA. Word of wisdom on the mufflers though- do your research to see if they are 100% ss. A lot of "ss" mufflers have steel inlet/outlet tubing.
Also note, stainless doesn't do well in tubing benders so the best way is welding mandrel bends together which makes the job expensive unless you do it yourself. Maybe it's a good time to start practicing welding together exhaust pipes. Personally, I have always been disappointed in all muffler shops and come home and redo it myself. The hardest part about doing it yourself is getting good straight cuts without a bandsaw. A cheap mig welder and stainless wire is the easy part.
Thanks finding the Reputable muffler shop is the problem there is A lot of Butchers that just want to slam it together
Sounds like you need someone that has a Tig and can come to you. Most muffler shops mig, and most welding shops don't do exhausts as they take too much time. Building a custom exhaust takes time and sometimes a couple of attempts at a joint. Most mandrel bends come in fixed angles and requires "tweaks" to get the angle you need, and then polish the welds before final install. It is correct that ss tubing does not do well in benders, which is why I used mandrel bends in mine.
Back when I had my OT Lincoln I put SS exhaust extensions on and when I went to have the tubing expanded to slip over it would split. I was told that SS tubing had to be "fresh" or newly produced together bend or stretch.
Google custom exhaust shops in your area. tjere are a few here in Toronto and Hamilton that advertise “hot rod” exhaust and SS and mandrel bending Not cheap but good. Sorry but exhaust like you want takes skill and time and most shops only want the “gravey”. Oem replacement or fart cans on Honda’s .
I'm unclear as to what this mean exactly and I think where you need to have the work done will to an extent be determined by this. I do my own with ss tube and mandrel bends, tig welder and an assortment of cutting / sanding grinding weapons. I take my time, am pretty careful and enjoy the job and the results (usually!). Finishes vary from simply welded, through brushed finish to mirror polished with invisible welds. They're all 'nice', or nice enough for what I require, but I'm not trying to build AMBR contenders (well sometimes I am kind of, but fail miserably!). The time investment varies enormously however and I know I have the patience or skill to get a truly flawless finish throughout, but keep working on it. You might need to find a good hobbyist who does side work or all the way through to a high end rodshop! Depends on what you want. I've never seen a 'muffler shop' exhaust that I'd say looked 'nice' and I've seen plenty of what are very nicely built cars, but let down by the muffler shop exhaust. Opinions may vary! Chris
Thanks Guys A friend told me about A shop in North Wales called Round 2 Motorsports I called and they sound like the guys for the job. I dont want A nice car with A butchered exhaust I want it to look as good on the bottom as the top. Thanks
Stick with the aluminized steel with a pair of Dynomax Super Turbos #17749. No X pipe but the H pipe is fine.. These mufflers will sound fantastic after a few thousand miles. They have a real mellow strong sound...
Word to the OP, some shops put SS tubes on but MIG it with steel wire. The welds wont polish and they will rust. If they MIG make sure they are suing SS wire. I suppose if they have mandrel bender they would TIG.
Used to do a lot of stainless steel TIG welding on tubing for some of the chillers we used to manufacture. We always ran an argon gas purge through it for a good clean weld, otherwise it would rust, not to mention being a weaker weld joint. Built a couple stainless exhaust systems and always made a point of running argon through them prior to welding.
^^^ Yep! The chrome in the metal can migrate, and a weld may develop rust 'rings' due to this effect.
It's called sensitization. The actual cause is the chromium in solution (what makes it stainless steel) comes out and combines with carbon to make chromium carbides. This has effect of locally depleting the chromium content in the heat affected zones. And subsequently allows rusting in those areas. To avoid the problem, use stabilized grades 321 or 347 stainless. As a less optimum use low carbon 304. Sent from dumb operator on a smart phone
Thanks Pitman and 38 Chevy, I thought I knew it all (just kidding). I think of Hamb as a "Hot Rod encyclopedia" a question gets asked and then answers/opinions come pouring in. I didn't know that about SS. Does TIG welding mitigate this phenomenon ? I run SS exhaust on all my cars but they are OT and can be purchased pre bent. My 57 will have SS welded up. Again thanks for the info. Pat
I had the issue when TIG welding a Stainless header to fit my '31 roadster w/a modern Ford 4-banger. Nice the fellows here recommend certain alloy types.
It is a problem with any stainless, and it is in the HAZ of the weld, not the weld itself. So TIG welding does not change the effect, it is caused by heat. TIG may in fact make it worse because the longer time at temp due to slower travel and slower cooling through that critical 600-1200F range. In basic terms, it forms the chromium carbides in the 600-1200F temp range, which is within the HAZ bands on each side of the weld. The reason the stabilized grades 321 (Titanium addition) or 347 (Columbium addition) do not have the problem is that the titanium or columbium are stronger carbide formers than chromium; thus leaving the chromium to stay in solution. A low carbon 304L (L meaning low carbon) grade simply has less carbon to potentially form the chromium carbides, as an alternative method although less effective. You can get rid of the sensitization by heating the entire welded assy up above the 1200F temp to dissolve the chromium carbides and put the chromium back into solution, but that is not really practical.
Check the guys work before you turn him loose on it. With so many food processing plants and dairy farms around here we are rather spoiled by having a number of top quality welders who can weld sanitary stainless tubing (sanitary welding = purging the pipe you are welding with Argon to get clean welds inside the pipe).