Outer Limits 4x4 Board

A certain exhaust company just outside Brisbane advertising custom mandrel systems made with their own mandrel benders who ship all over the place made a custom system for my 105 yesterday.

• 4hr est (took 8hrs)
  Charged $1100 then came back for anther $100 (accounting error)
  Wrong Muffler installed (louvred instead of perforated) - only asked 3 times
  Resonator fitted - not wanted (asked not to) - then removed.
  Wrong tailpipe exit - too low and chome, not high and no tip - only asked twice
  Touched in 3 places - driveshaft / transfer / fuel tank
  Too close to floor for no reason
  Muffler now lowset point on car (heaps of room above it)
  Squashed pipe to clear transfer
  I have money it will hit the front tailshaft when flexed

Cost $1200
3" system all the way
Sounds good (quieter than the 1/2 worn MTZ's)
Sounds good (louder then factory, can hear turbo)
Faster turbo reponse (previous system was 2.5" mandrel)
Possibly lower EGT's by 30-40C - need more testing here
Good quality bending / welding / prep / attention to most detail
Fully flanged, 5 sections - easy to take pieces in / out


For std cars - they may do well. For custom systems - forget it.
I'm approachign them to fix the clearance concerns.

Paul

After seeing some of these so called exhaust shops efforts over the years... im not surprised.

This is why i always build my own, build friends too.

I charge $900 full mandrel no ifs no buts

Z()LTAN wrote:After seeing some of these so called exhaust shops efforts over the years... im not surprised.

This is why i always build my own, build friends too.

I charge $900 full mandrel no ifs

Yeah, I wouldn't touch ifs either.

Are there any specific qualifications you'd have to have to work in an exhaust shop? Some of these guys are so good, and some are so... not good.

Z()LTAN wrote:
I charge $900 full mandrel no ifs no buts

The idea of less welds and mandrel's bent into the pipe onsite did appeal.

Hmm, Perth's only a quick drive from BNE

Paul

paul i had a very bad dealing with an ultimate exhaust shop on southpine rd, brendale... after the 3rd time back i still had big issues with it, not to mention the shitty dodge job they did. finally the exhaust snapped off the turbo flange after having the exhaust for 3 months.
in an emergency situation i got them to repair it for me, only problem was that they warped the flange so bad the nuts would do back up so it didnt fix a thing.

i took my car to Fat Pipes in kallangur... WOW, it is a work of art, they did some special stuff that i asked for to go around some stuff i added, they have done it all mandrel from one piece of tube in 3 sections (as far as possible) they did a turbo back custom 3 inch exhaust for my 79 series V8 with a cat and a flex joint in aluminized steel (same as beauy exhaust as you would know by now) and it cost $1000and although it seems alot, the job is worth it and they are great guys who will do the job exactly how you ask for it to be done.

I got charged 400 for a 3" mandrel bent custom job from the dump back on the little red devil .

Fully custom made to go around body mounts etc, and when i decided that the muffler was too quiet he put in a replacement section no charge

Scott's rods (primarily a hot rod and sports car joint) in Yamanto queensland. Can't rave about their work enough

Yeh dumbass exhaust shops who dont do what you ask are everywhere, including one i shouldnt have gone to in Notting Hill near corner of Blackburn and Ferntree Gully. Peformance my ass.

me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:
The idea of less welds

if you don't like welds you could allways pop rivet........oh hang on.....

joeblow wrote:

me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:
The idea of less welds

if you don't like welds you could allways pop rivet........oh hang on.....

if you are in brisbane go to fat pipes worth the wait to get in there and worth every cent
les and his guys have done all my performance work including custom made extractors except one which was a big mistake gonna get them to replace the new system i got on my fte 105 cruiser very soon

Z()LTAN wrote:After seeing some of these so called exhaust shops efforts over the years... im not surprised.

This is why i always build my own

This is why i also do my own. There isn't a decent workshop around here. I save a bucketload of money too. I have to admit though that the GQ and GU exhausts i've done last have been off the shelf jobs - only because i was stuck for time.

My Falcon exhaust will be an off the shelf job too because i don't have the time to build one.

i built my own also, I dont think I saved much compared to an off the shelf unit, but I got it exactly how I wanted it (almost) and it has worked out pretty good so far. Took me a full weekend about 20hrs work.

me and a mate made my 3inch straight through mandrell on my 80 series, got quoated $850 from one joint. only cost me 80 bucks for a few 90 degree bends, and had flanges in the shed. and the mate had bout 6 meters of pipe, wich he owed me for a few things so i got it bonus free. and only took us bout half day takin our time. little bit of time and effort and know how and ya can have anything ya want. all up costed me 100 bucks 2including beers.

rockcrawler31 wrote:I got charged 400 for a 3" mandrel bent custom job from the dump back on the little red devil .

Fully custom made to go around body mounts etc, and when i decided that the muffler was too quiet he put in a replacement section no charge

Scott's rods (primarily a hot rod and sports car joint) in Yamanto queensland. Can't rave about their work enough

x2 for Scott

..

went to scotts rods for a quote about 3months ago for a quote on my gq and D40 only live 10 minutes away the young fella told me the boss wasn't in so he wrote the details down in the book took me through the workshop showed me the difference between the cats they use and standard. And i'm still waiting. could have bought one of his items off ebay and had it moded by now

i hate businesses that don't get back to the customer

92mav wrote:went to scotts rods for a quote about 3months ago for a quote on my gq and D40 only live 10 minutes away the young fella told me the boss wasn't in so he wrote the details down in the book took me through the workshop showed me the difference between the cats they use and standard. And i'm still waiting. could have bought one of his items off ebay and had it moded by now

i hate businesses that don't get back to the customer

Then why not buy from ebay.
Or just ring the place back & follow up

92mav wrote:went to scotts rods for a quote about 3months ago for a quote on my gq and D40 only live 10 minutes away the young fella told me the boss wasn't in so he wrote the details down in the book took me through the workshop showed me the difference between the cats they use and standard. And i'm still waiting. could have bought one of his items off ebay and had it moded by now

i hate businesses that don't get back to the customer

Maybe it's a good sign that they're too busy to chase up every job lead?

I have personally found Scott's Rods to be excellent with both quality and price!

me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:A certain exhaust company just outside Brisbane advertising custom mandrel systems made with their own mandrel benders who ship all over the place made a custom system for my 105 yesterday.

• 4hr est (took 8hrs)
  Charged $1100 then came back for anther $100 (accounting error)
  Wrong Muffler installed (louvred instead of perforated) - only asked 3 times
  Resonator fitted - not wanted (asked not to) - then removed.
  Wrong tailpipe exit - too low and chome, not high and no tip - only asked twice
  Touched in 3 places - driveshaft / transfer / fuel tank
  Too close to floor for no reason
  Muffler now lowset point on car (heaps of room above it)
  Squashed pipe to clear transfer
  I have money it will hit the front tailshaft when flexed

Cost $1200
3" system all the way
Sounds good (quieter than the 1/2 worn MTZ's)
Sounds good (louder then factory, can hear turbo)
Faster turbo reponse (previous system was 2.5" mandrel)
Possibly lower EGT's by 30-40C - need more testing here
Good quality bending / welding / prep / attention to most detail
Fully flanged, 5 sections - easy to take pieces in / out


For std cars - they may do well. For custom systems - forget it.
I'm approachign them to fix the clearance concerns.

Paul

So which shop is it?


cheers

I'm lucky when it comes to exhaust. I have 2" sports exhaust + extracters for my Suzuki Sierra/Holden Drover. Never had any problems with it. When an old lady 'rear ended' me, the exhaust mounts came loose on impact so I took it back to the place I got it from and he fixed it for free in less than 5 minutes. With my Pajero, I got a 2.5" system fitted to my turbo diesel engine and haven't had any problems since fitting in 2007 (I love the sound and the turbo whistle). Just a few weeks ago I fitted a long range tank, so I am taking it back to the exhaust shop for some minor modification (quoted $30-$40) next week. When I eventually get my Ford XC ute on the road (351 Clevo) I will have no hesitation booking it into Bay Road Exhaust (Mark) in Cheltenham Vic to fit my twin 2.5" exhaust!

i recomend scotts rods .i bort a system off ebay for my 80 series

chimpboy wrote:Are there any specific qualifications you'd have to have to work in an exhaust shop? Some of these guys are so good, and some are so... not good.

Indeed anyone can get a job there, most of them can't even weld ive had 2 full 3inch systems built and an exhaust manifold in the last 4 years, bot exhausts have been sh!t, not done how i asked, half of one wasn't even the right size pipe, both leaked after taking it back numerous times, and the welding on the exhausts had next to no penetration, looked like a bird sharted on it.

The manifold was top notch, collector was perfect, done how i wanted, turbo position perfect, thats what happens when someone with a bit of skill gets your car to work on.

Jeeps wrote:

me3@neuralfibre.com wrote:A certain exhaust company just outside Brisbane advertising custom mandrel systems made with their own mandrel benders who ship all over the place made a custom system for my 105 yesterday.

• 4hr est (took 8hrs)
  Charged $1100 then came back for anther $100 (accounting error)
  Wrong Muffler installed (louvred instead of perforated) - only asked 3 times
  Resonator fitted - not wanted (asked not to) - then removed.
  Wrong tailpipe exit - too low and chome, not high and no tip - only asked twice
  Touched in 3 places - driveshaft / transfer / fuel tank
  Too close to floor for no reason
  Muffler now lowset point on car (heaps of room above it)
  Squashed pipe to clear transfer
  I have money it will hit the front tailshaft when flexed

Cost $1200
3" system all the way
Sounds good (quieter than the 1/2 worn MTZ's)
Sounds good (louder then factory, can hear turbo)
Faster turbo reponse (previous system was 2.5" mandrel)
Possibly lower EGT's by 30-40C - need more testing here
Good quality bending / welding / prep / attention to most detail
Fully flanged, 5 sections - easy to take pieces in / out


For std cars - they may do well. For custom systems - forget it.
I'm approachign them to fix the clearance concerns.

Paul

So which shop is it?


cheers

ask him by PM, he might tell you!

cheers

Follow up.

As I indicated above I contacted them with my concerns as per here. They were happy to address some of the concerns, whilst others where "that's the way it comes, hundreds of others are happy that way".


Took the cruiser back out there and they lifted the muffler a bit higher and re-routed the pipe away from the body. The difference is enough to solve the issue. That pipe is now welded sections rather than one piece in the CNC machine.

They have stood by their work and sorted my concerns.

As I know (from comments there) that someone related to the company is reading this thread - my honest review is as follows:

Pro's:
Good quality parts (as far as I can tell)
Good quality construction
Stand by their product

Con's
Custom systems are a challenge - Everythign starts off as a "set" program.
What you ask for you may not get. Basic things like louvred vs perforated, exit paths and mufflers.
The routing on my car left quite a bit to be desired - that wasn't on the custom bits. Maybe it's just a lousy template for a HZJ105, but the routing was poor (I quickly found a better path). Requests to move it aren't well acommodated as it's not what they have programmed the machine to do.
Customer service is barely average. You don't apologise by making excuses and telling the customer it's their own fault, you apologise for mistakes sincerly. I'll not dwell on that - but if anyone from the particular company reads this far feel free to PM and I'll explain.
For a CNC mandrel bent system there are a lot of welds and flange joints. This would be due to transport constraints, but to me it means potential problems and weight.


So

Custom systems - go elsewhere.

Scott's Rod's quote was a couple of hundred $ cheaper and I think he has a mandrel bender (wish I knew that before). Might be worth looking into.

OEM replacements - the general build quality is good. Just hope your car is well routed.

The system is slightly quieter now than when new, and doesn't whistle. I assume the glass in the muffler has some soot on the corners to help shut it up.

YMMV

Paul

Some pics of the issues

Before


Before


Before (beside txfr case - hard to see the clearance)


Before


After


After


After


After

looks much better. I ran my 3" exhaust like this on my 80series. I had to cut the little rectangular tab off the transfer case as the exhaust rattled against it occasionaly. (tab is visible in your 2nd after pic)

i ran my zorst under there like that on my 75, but i cheated

thats a great yob youve done there zoltan you could make a lot of money doin that full time if the desire was there could be quite lucrative

thanks mate!

its pretty easy work making an exhaust, mine cost me just under $200 and about 4 hours of my time