You're joking, right??

 

lol The F150 ain't a crotch rocket.

Stainless steel is physically different than mild steel. It's all about the hardness and dissimilar metals that makes it so hard to weld the two together, and can't properly be done with a muffler shop mig welder with mild wire. A mig with stainless flux core wire or preferably a tig welder with stainless filler rod is what's needed, at least that's my personal experience at welding the two together. Drilling into stainless is different than mild steel. You can blow and go with a drill bit into mild steel, but you'll burn up bits quicker than hooha if you drill fast into stainless. Slow drill motor rpm's with high downward pressure is the way to drill stainless steel, and drill lube helps. (no wise cracks please)

 

Yea, I migged my entire system with a Flux core. The collectors as well. I didn't want ANY leaks lol. Ford pipes are a grade of stainless, from 97. Not sure if they were before that.

 

Yea, I had the same problem. You run around the cats twice, In-fact, I ran most seams twice w/wire. It gets hot, to quick. I will Tig my next exhaust tho. Less work and it looks better (not that to many may care).

 

Stealth and jbrew,

I agree with both your statements. My point is that most "Competent" exhaust shops should be able to perform the task.

There is an exhaust shop in my local area that is owned & operated by the same individual and he like's to pick and choose what he does. He is overly priced and a waste of time in my opinion. I found another shop that does mild steel, aluminized, stainless, crush bend and mandrel bend with pipe sizes ranging from 1 7/8" to 5".

 

I have now contacted 17 shops with not one of them below 200.00 to do this, and/or Not willing to do the job.. WTH.. I give, i'll juist wait till it has more miles on it and cut it up. I really hate living in NY.. i'm a redneck sled head with no snow and quiet exhaust..

 

Just an example of a competent shop... I had my FM Cat-back muffler replaced this morning with a #12579 Magnaflow. The aluminized pipe to SS Maggie was no problem for the exhaust shop. The weld bead looks nice and clean.

Do you ever take your truck on a road trip? Take the muffler next time your out of town. Find a shop in the area you visit and have them do the install.

 

^ My shop done it to my truck. Borla stainless and aluminized pipe. No problem.

 

If you lived in SD, I'd say bring some PBR, park it in my driveway, and it would be done in 30. An exhaust/muffler shop that can't weld stainless... um... okay. That's the dumbest thing I've heard all day. Stainless is harder to weld than regular carbon steel; it's properties make it stronger so it requires more heat to melt the base metal. Since we are talking about exhausts and mufflers, the wall thickness is pretty thin so maybe they are just worried about blowing through. IDK, inexperience in my opinion. I had a local shop bend my exhaust system. He asked if I wanted him to weld it up. I saw some samples on display in the shop. It looked like someone threw some bird crap on the pipes. I said, "No thanks. The Navy didn't spend over 100k to teach me how to weld for nothing." Maybe you could find someone on Craigslist that has some skill? There's always ads for oddball weld jobs. Otherwise just clamp it for now.

 

You need to personally visit the Midas shops. I work with 2 different ones here in Syracuse and I know of a third. They all weld stainless. As a matter of fact I am headed there tomorrow to have the 4" stainless tips put on the true dual setup that they did for me. When I first called they didnt want to do it but when I stopped in they pointed to the guy in the shop that specializes in custom setups. Each shop has a guy that does that stuff but I guess they dont like to advertise it

 

SS is trickier to weld, but any shop that deals with muffler installs should have no trouble with stainless in muffler pipping gauges. Stainless gets a bit touchy when getting in the 3/8 inch range. I'd say the shops had a little shortcoming in the staffing department.

Oh...yeah....Titanium? On a crotch rocket maybe as stealth put it!

 

If a shop will not weld stainless exhaust, then they should be boycotted and forced to shut down. Not every custom exhaust is crap aluminized. The NY part is probably your problem, so many strict rules up there when it comes to automotive parts. Come to PA for a day and get your exhaust done by the many good and willing installers.

 

where did you say you lived in new york i'mm in upstate and i would consider welding it at my house for ya.