how much does a custom stainless steel exhaust cost (2023)

Introduction

monkeyfabgarage.com

Video

Foreign that's, why? So anyway, Oz wanting to do the math for you guys, I know that some of you might be interested people like people like numbers, there's just a number of people.

So for you number people out, there I broke down the entire exhaust, uh, what it cost and how much time it took to do it? Uh, I'm, not capturing everything, but the majority of the stuff here.

So just raw materials, it's.

It it mind you.

We did all this and I put it down in the ground.

And at the right angle, you can barely see the exhaust tips.

So a lot of this work was uh, just for for nobody.

But yourself I.

Guess, um.

Maybe somebody will stuck their head underneath your car and be like.

Wow, ooh, wow.

What a great what a great exhaust system you built, um, but most likely, no one will ever see it.

So keep that in mind headers, 150 bucks, uh from eBay, China, I still have to modify them.

So there's, probably another probably three hours of work going into those, um, but we're about to stick part spark plugs and all the ports and put the coils and plugs on, and then we'll be 100 sure if there's anything else that needs to be moved.

But right now we got one for sure that needs to be moved.

150 bucks.

Mufflers I got two magnaflows I, like the sound of them.

I've come to kind of find that one MagnaFlow is for my old ass, too loud, uh.

So usually, uh, you'll, I'll, usually resonate a MagnaFlow.

And that is about the right sound for me, uh, the wagon I wanted quiet and stealthy.

So we did two magnaflows and I, put them down I.

Think about 150 bucks each, but they're, nice straight through mufflers and usually have pretty good sound.

We got a crossover pipe and I'm sure many of you will be upset about the summit.

Crossover we bought, but it's it's nice.

It has a big volume inside of it.

And it would have taken me quite a few hours, uh to basically cut and weld the crossover pipe.

And it wouldn't have the same volume generally when you merge, uh, two pieces together.

You got to cut a section of that out, which means you're actually going less than uh, the volume of that that pipes, uh, internal diameter.

But this guy was I think they basically made it for like a three and two and a half.

So if you look at their three inch, crossover it's, the same as the two and a half inch, but with just little bigger pipes on the end.

So we got good volume on that.

And hopefully it'll make the nice sound.

I, don't know, we're just throwing it in there, 40 bucks V bands.

I got six v-b bands.

The copper V bands.

We saw on the website, lookfabgarage.com, uh, those guys were 44 bucks.

Each we used six of them for a total of 264 dollars, uh, straight exhaust pipe.

The two and a half inch stainless steel, 304 I, looked up on Amazon and it's about 18 bucks, it's actually like 20 bucks.

But I, just estimated normally I, usually pay.

18 bucks I think that maybe it's because I buy a lot.

So if you buy a lot like you need 24 foot, uh that at 18 bucks so you're, looking at 430 bucks of just straight tubing.

You need the 90s that's.

What we use just like the you can buy like little 90s on Amazon I found where you can get four of them for 20 bucks, which is an incredible deal.

Uh, anyway.

We use 14 of those for 70 bucks, uh for a grand total of 1 256., uh, dollars.

So we'll just say, twelve hundred dollars on that.

Then we went into the labor, and you know what you would consider Shop prices.

I used two bottles of argon like two, 300 pound or 300 cubic feet bottles, which basically cost me like 80 bucks each, uh, that's, how much welding went into it back purging and all of that stuff? So, uh, I, just added it up I.

How many welds did we do? Uh, we did 64 welds, uh, 64 complete all the way around each one of those was 7.85 inches.

So we have a ground total of 502 inches of welding that we did on this exhaust, uh, generally, I say, I, guesstimate.

It takes me about a minute, an inch I, just find that to be pretty fair because again, I have to pay for the back.

Purging I have to I I tend to move it around a lot.

It just takes a long time.

I, I, post, flow, uh, maybe everything look nice and get good quality full penetration welds.

It takes time and to do it properly and not burn your stainless you.

It takes just takes a little bit of time and effort.

So we'll say, 8.5 hours of welding, um I figured that the time it took to to fit this up, because you gotta figure you gotta cut each little Tubi, um, you usually cut it too big because it's always easier to take away.

You can't put back as easily.

So you cut fit it's, too long.

Usually go back cut a little bit more fit, maybe it's still too long.

Go back.

You know, grind a little bit Yeah.

Okay, it's.

Good deeper, uh, deeper.

Go ahead, clean.

The inside of the tube, so it doesn't, well like poop polish it, all that stuff takes time.

So I think that just doubling the well time makes sense.

So we'll say, 17 hours, if you do it at like, uh, 100 bucks an hour, a shop rate, which is I think cheap these days you're, looking at, you know, a thousand seven hundred dollars.

So you got a grand total of about, uh, just just twenty nine hundred dollars, uh, just like just under three grand just for to to buy Chinese headers and build a full stainless exhaust.

You know, doing it.

How I would consider properly I was lucky.

All the stock, uh, mounts and stuff from the Volvo just fit perfectly and I was able to reuse all that stuff.

So I didn't have like the little hangers and bits, but yeah, I still have to go back and put the O2 sensor in so there's like another hour, uh of work and same with, uh, modifying the runners another hour or two of work to do on the exhaust system that probably nobody will ever see, or if they do see it all they'll see is just the very back of the tips or the Chinese headers underneath the uh, the hood and all for not.

But hopefully it sounds sounds good and lasts a long time, uh.

So that's, a breakdown with the price hope that helps you guys out and they'll, hopefully help wrap your head around I think a couple things.

Uh, one is like how much time and effort it takes to do something like this, which is if that's what you I mean, if it's your hobby you enjoy doing that so you're out in the garage and great the more time you can do doing what you enjoy the better.

Um, however, if it's a shop and they're, you know, doing this to make, uh money.

Then you can kind of see like, you know, does this make sense? You know, can I, hey, how they come up with the numbers and B? You know what that value is to you, you know, value subjective to you three grand have somebody do this.

You know might be, uh, a bargain.

Um, it might also just be completely out of your realm, which is is cool and everybody understands.

But you also have to, you know, everybody's got to put their mind around it.

Uh value is subjective.