Your local exhaust shop is a real hit and miss, but if you know what you want before you go there it may prove worthwhile.
A friend of mine recommended that I go get my exhaust done-up by a local shop since I would save a ton of money. This is especially the case if some of you don't live in rusted regions. Of course many shops vary and some offer stainless steel, mandrel bends, etc. I own a DSM and its a 1G so I chose to go with a press bent 3in setup with a 3in cat, and a magnaflow 3in to 4in out. From the Turbo they made a downpipe using my existing downpipe, which I wasn't really crazy about. They basically took the existing downpipe, cut the flange out, and welded it on to the 3in piping.
Since it was going to take them a few hours to make I dropped my car off, and went to a buddies house to hang out for a bit thinking that I would be able to come back and it would be done. Well I went back a few hours later and they had just finished up with the downpipe, so I stuck around in fear that if I didnt supervise the install, it would be really botched.
They proceeded to press bend the 3 in piping and in reality it wasn't that bad. Since it's 3in they made it go under the axle and it only rubs on really agressive driveways with Eiback Sportlines. I was a bit disappointed with the whole downpipe issue, but after arguing for awhile they agreed that when i upgraded my turbo they would weld on a different flange made from scratch.
The horsepower increase was incredible, dropping at least 8/10's off my ET. With the new catalytic convertor I passed emissions with flying colors with no SAFC adjustments, and a fluctuating ISC. Its also very quiet at idle with a loud rumble under boost. The police don;t even look at me twice, but hte rumble love to set off sensative car alarms
For $465 you can't beat the price, but if I were to do it again I would have purchased an aftermarket downpipe from Buscher or someone else, and had them do a cat-back for me since the downpipe was a nightmare, and after being at the track yesterday it now leaks alot until its warm. Still for $465, I got a Magnaflow racing muffler, 3in racing cat, and a good job from the downpipe on back.
A friend of mine recommended that I go get my exhaust done-up by a local shop since I would save a ton of money. This is especially the case if some of you don't live in rusted regions. Of course many shops vary and some offer stainless steel, mandrel bends, etc. I own a DSM and its a 1G so I chose to go with a press bent 3in setup with a 3in cat, and a magnaflow 3in to 4in out. From the Turbo they made a downpipe using my existing downpipe, which I wasn't really crazy about. They basically took the existing downpipe, cut the flange out, and welded it on to the 3in piping.
Since it was going to take them a few hours to make I dropped my car off, and went to a buddies house to hang out for a bit thinking that I would be able to come back and it would be done. Well I went back a few hours later and they had just finished up with the downpipe, so I stuck around in fear that if I didnt supervise the install, it would be really botched.
They proceeded to press bend the 3 in piping and in reality it wasn't that bad. Since it's 3in they made it go under the axle and it only rubs on really agressive driveways with Eiback Sportlines. I was a bit disappointed with the whole downpipe issue, but after arguing for awhile they agreed that when i upgraded my turbo they would weld on a different flange made from scratch.
The horsepower increase was incredible, dropping at least 8/10's off my ET. With the new catalytic convertor I passed emissions with flying colors with no SAFC adjustments, and a fluctuating ISC. Its also very quiet at idle with a loud rumble under boost. The police don;t even look at me twice, but hte rumble love to set off sensative car alarms
For $465 you can't beat the price, but if I were to do it again I would have purchased an aftermarket downpipe from Buscher or someone else, and had them do a cat-back for me since the downpipe was a nightmare, and after being at the track yesterday it now leaks alot until its warm. Still for $465, I got a Magnaflow racing muffler, 3in racing cat, and a good job from the downpipe on back.
