The guy I'm hoping will do it basically hasn't charged me for anything he's done yet.
I went in there three-four years ago looking for help making a potter's wheel. I needed a sleeve expanded so I could fit a pulley. It was Thanksgiving-eve, 5:15. The guy--Mike's his name--never saw me before. He looks at the mess in my hands, says, "yeah, I think I can do something with that," and ushers me to the back, where he chops a piece of exhaust pipe, expands the end and hands it to me. It takes him five minutes, maybe less. The thing is still hot. I slip it over the car part I was adapting it to. It's just a little loose.
Before I can say a word Mike cuts another piece and does the job again. That one was snug.
"What do I owe you?"
"Nothin'," he says. I think I finally talked him into taking $20, but maybe not.
The next summer, when my 120,000-mile truck sounded like **** I went straight back there, naturally. "You got me this time," I told him. "I don't think anyone's done anything to this exhaust since the truck was new."
"Let's have a look," he says.
I was expecting a cat-back, $500 bill. Dude calls me back an hour later & says he's all done. "I just welded it up," he says.
I don't remember what he charged that time, but it was under $200. Might have been under $100. It hasn't needed any attention since, and we just turned over 155,000 miles.
Later he welded a shock mount that broke. Again, super-reasonable; something like $150 with two new shocks. And a few weeks ago, when I burned my shift rod trying to weld it after shortening it, they tried not to charge me again to fix that. Mike didn't hand me that part, another dude did. No receipts or anything.
I hear (from another pipe-bender) that the "boss" is an asshole who charges huge amounts, but "he's in Florida," so as long as Mike's there I get (so far, at least), awesome service at reasonable rates.
I suppose this all could change. And I swear I'm not trying to cheap-out on these hard-working, well-skilled guys. But the job at hand might be a little easier than a full-on custom header. I've got the old pipes and would be fine with them using the existing flange and first few inches of head pipe. Seems to me they could oval-out a 2 1/4 (or 2 1/2)-inch pipe and slip it over that, weld around the seams and make the 90s from there. Might save some time and trouble.
There are six 90-degree bends to make, maybe two flanges to weld, plus probably a flex cuff. It might need a custom cat but the Suby one is still with me & it has the O2 bung already in it. If I'm lucky, I'm seeing $50 in parts and half a day's fiddling by one of Mike's assistants.
But you're probably right. Nothing I've done on this car yet has taken only half a day and $50 in parts.
We shall see.
