I went to the local exhaust shop and i asked how much to put Hooker cat back on my car. He said he could make the exhaust and buy the muffler and put it on for 370. Is that a bad price?

 

Might not be a bad price for what he's doing, but that doesn't make it a good deal.

Is he going to mandrel bend the pipe?

 

he says he is. why wouldnt it make it a good deal?

 

Size, bend type, fit - all a crapshoot with custom stuff. You can be reasonably confident that the aftermarket system is going to be done right.

 

5 seven is right. i have run muffler shops for the last 15 years. pipe bending is a lost art. there are several reasons. new laws, availability on the aftermarket, tighter confines, experienced benders. all these things have lead to lost productivity. it's hard to make any money due to a better and usually cheaper aftermarket bolt on system. many installers have turned to installing purchased systems. with shop rates soaring above $70 dollars an hour your tech had better be able to bend it right the first time and be quick about it. i have worked on more complex dual systems that have taken me seven hours plus to install. heck my 67 camaro was at a custom fab shop for three days. that being said very few people out there can make a "quality" system for a reasonable price. but bring your purchased system down and i'll put it on for ya!

 

you'll have to see what the guy is capable of, i know my buddy doesnt bend his pipes, he has prebent stainless pieces he cuts up and fits together to get the desired bends he wants.

cost me 180 to get my over the axle section done, and that didnt include the 25 dollar splitter piece. it was a custom request and took alittle while to get it done right and looking even

if he was doing a catback with a crossflow muffer like a hooker catback, i'm sure he could do the piping work for less than 200 bucks, this is with 3inch pipes too, and the cost of the muffler is less than 100. so with that said i think 370 is abit overpriced but not too much overpriced.

 

Fastcar06,

Pipe bending is a lost art. It took me a good two years before I could nail a nice exhaust system just from looking at it. After doing it for over 13 years I was really good at it and people would drive quite a distance to get a nice system built.

It is sad to see what some shop charged and what they sent out the door. I took a different job (changed careers) and not just do my exhaust systems out of mandrel bends. Most of the stuff I do now is out of stainless steel and tig welded.Not really fair to compair a bent exhaust system to a custom fab set up like I do now.

I would agree that your best bet is to purchase a nice kit and have someone install it. If one of your "friends" who know what he is doing can install it. it can be really nice for a minimal amount of money.

Just my

 

There is a shop here that specializes in custom mandrel bend tubing - headers, exhaust, roll cages, etc. I would trust them to do a good job, but for the 3rd gen, there is just no reason to have them do it. Even Pacesetter stuff is well done enough to satisfy me (okay, I'm not **** about some things), they'd have to charge at least 3 times as much to custom bend as good of a system, and that wouldn't even include the cost of a muffler.

I am considering having them do some work on the '57, but that's a whole different story.

 

stainless, mandrel bends, tig welding, custom fab shops....none of which equall anything close to $370.00. anyone of these jobs (assuming you have a quality tech) is priced in a different league. and rightfully so. you get what you pay for...hopeully...but i too have seen some crap people charged good money for. thats why at my shop we stray away from anything custom short of pickup cat backs. but could we do it. sure...pull the dust cover off the ole ben pearson. just doesn't make economic sense. let the custom fab shops do what they are good at and make a buck in the process.