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Hi guys,
I received my ls1 magnaflow exhaust and cat and took it to a local car shop that said they had a mandrel tubing bender. He said he could bend the s pipe with 3 inch stainless tubing and install it for around 200 bucks. This was over the phone, and i never ordered the slp install kit because he said he could build the same thing.
Anyway, when i get to the shop he pulled my car in to the lift, then swung the door open. I know my doors and saw it was to close to the lift when he opened it and caught it right before it hit the lift which would have scratched all the way up the door and probably dented it.
I showed him the system and the cat and of course he started saying how it was too big. He looked at the cat and said "the law only lets us do certain things and so i'll see if i can put this on legally" and that is was too small for the car so it will go bad really quickly. Then said the 3" was too much, I told him yeah it may be overkill, but it's what i want on and maybe i'll get a turbo in the future. He said even for a turbo it is too big and it will f*** up the car. (over the phone i told him what i wanted to do and said he also sold the same cat and it would work great)
Then when he was lifting it he put the braces under the rectangle metal piece where the fron fender gets hooked down. I didnt double check where he was lifting cause i figured he had a little knowledge of what he was doing. When he lifted the cars weight on the small pieces one folded flat over breaking the fender panel away from the rectangle piece underneath the car, the other side was bent out which pushed the fender out about an inch.
I didnt realize til later that he had placed the lift on the flimsy metal pieces. I noticed the passenger side fender was sticking out an inch and i did a double take. Then i looked under and saw it was bent over. Then i saw that the other side was f***** too.
In the meantime, the "mandrel bender" , which i asked if he had and whether the bend was under pressure keeping the same id, turned out to be a regular tubing bender that kinked as well as restricting it by nearly 1" overall on the bend. He also bent regular tubing and said that it would now be about 250.00 and if i wanted the bung welded in it would be another 30.00. He told me that since he had started bending the tubing i had to let him finish.
Long story short i told him where he could shove what and how hard ( i had been keeping cool so far ), then i grabbed a hammer and straigtened out the bent over piece (it pulled the fender back in nicely), lowered my car, and left.
I will now be ordering the slp install kit, going to an exhaust shop that i know and trust for a fair price and get it done in a week or so.
I posted this experience because it seems to be a recurring thing to me. I have never had luck at any shop period (except les schwab tire) and i have had this car since new in 00. Be sure that when you take your car somewhere you have it clean, make them walk around it checking for damage, and remind them of all the little things about your car (taking ramps at angles, huge doors, etc.). I figured this guy would know that camaros have big, heavy doors and this guys almost gave me a world of headaches.
Also, if your younger or soft spoken, have someone go with you. I basically had to intimidate this guy (i'm nearly 6'3" and 220 and he was 5'7", round and 220) in to getting my car outta there.
I am also going to put a screw in to the fender panel, where it broke off, this weekend and it will be good as new.
When it was up he also started saying my pinion was leaking as well and he could rebuild it for 600 bucks and blah blah. Just be careful when you go to a new shop for the first time.
Brad
sorry for the long post
I received my ls1 magnaflow exhaust and cat and took it to a local car shop that said they had a mandrel tubing bender. He said he could bend the s pipe with 3 inch stainless tubing and install it for around 200 bucks. This was over the phone, and i never ordered the slp install kit because he said he could build the same thing.
Anyway, when i get to the shop he pulled my car in to the lift, then swung the door open. I know my doors and saw it was to close to the lift when he opened it and caught it right before it hit the lift which would have scratched all the way up the door and probably dented it.
I showed him the system and the cat and of course he started saying how it was too big. He looked at the cat and said "the law only lets us do certain things and so i'll see if i can put this on legally" and that is was too small for the car so it will go bad really quickly. Then said the 3" was too much, I told him yeah it may be overkill, but it's what i want on and maybe i'll get a turbo in the future. He said even for a turbo it is too big and it will f*** up the car. (over the phone i told him what i wanted to do and said he also sold the same cat and it would work great)
Then when he was lifting it he put the braces under the rectangle metal piece where the fron fender gets hooked down. I didnt double check where he was lifting cause i figured he had a little knowledge of what he was doing. When he lifted the cars weight on the small pieces one folded flat over breaking the fender panel away from the rectangle piece underneath the car, the other side was bent out which pushed the fender out about an inch.
I didnt realize til later that he had placed the lift on the flimsy metal pieces. I noticed the passenger side fender was sticking out an inch and i did a double take. Then i looked under and saw it was bent over. Then i saw that the other side was f***** too.
In the meantime, the "mandrel bender" , which i asked if he had and whether the bend was under pressure keeping the same id, turned out to be a regular tubing bender that kinked as well as restricting it by nearly 1" overall on the bend. He also bent regular tubing and said that it would now be about 250.00 and if i wanted the bung welded in it would be another 30.00. He told me that since he had started bending the tubing i had to let him finish.
Long story short i told him where he could shove what and how hard ( i had been keeping cool so far ), then i grabbed a hammer and straigtened out the bent over piece (it pulled the fender back in nicely), lowered my car, and left.
I will now be ordering the slp install kit, going to an exhaust shop that i know and trust for a fair price and get it done in a week or so.
I posted this experience because it seems to be a recurring thing to me. I have never had luck at any shop period (except les schwab tire) and i have had this car since new in 00. Be sure that when you take your car somewhere you have it clean, make them walk around it checking for damage, and remind them of all the little things about your car (taking ramps at angles, huge doors, etc.). I figured this guy would know that camaros have big, heavy doors and this guys almost gave me a world of headaches.
Also, if your younger or soft spoken, have someone go with you. I basically had to intimidate this guy (i'm nearly 6'3" and 220 and he was 5'7", round and 220) in to getting my car outta there.
I am also going to put a screw in to the fender panel, where it broke off, this weekend and it will be good as new.
When it was up he also started saying my pinion was leaking as well and he could rebuild it for 600 bucks and blah blah. Just be careful when you go to a new shop for the first time.
Brad
sorry for the long post
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