Anyone who has done their own exhaust on 6gc, thinking of doing my own flex pipe welding Options

[malecrod]

Hi Everyone,
My flex pipe is busted and needs replacing. I had a quote from $110- $120 for from local exhaust shops. Now, this got me thinking; I can buy a flex pipe and an ARC Welder and do it on my own for roughly the same amount and also use the welder for future repairs etc. I would like to have input from anyone with any experience with welding their exhaust on the 6gc. Should I try it or just leave it to the pros?.
thanks.

[Blakout16]

arc welder is gonna be alot more money than 110 dollars.

go to a different shop, get another quote.

[Valo666]

Arc welding your exhaust would suck unless you take the entire system off the car...your best bet if you wanna weld it your self is mig...easiest to do, works well, cheap for material...i would say if your planning on doing more than just the one repair...it might be worth while gettin your self a welder...but if your only gonna be doing the 1 or 2 things here and there...spend the $110 or w/e they r charging. Like im plannin on buyin a decent mig welder mainly because i like to build stuff, im planning on doing some exhaust systems for some of my friends and because its somethin thats not bad to have around. Also...if you have never welded exhaust piping b4...buy some smaller peices and practice buttjoints..just because you will burn through really easily...ive welded exhausts b4 but i still burn through every once in awhile.

[99GT]

Are you registered on MNSportcompacts.net

[malecrod]

Arc welding your exhaust would suck unless you take the entire system off the car...your best bet if you wanna weld it your self is mig...easiest to do, works well, cheap for material...i would say if your planning on doing more than just the one repair...it might be worth while gettin your self a welder...but if your only gonna be doing the 1 or 2 things here and there...spend the $110 or w/e they r charging. Like im plannin on buyin a decent mig welder mainly because i like to build stuff, im planning on doing some exhaust systems for some of my friends and because its somethin thats not bad to have around. Also...if you have never welded exhaust piping b4...buy some smaller peices and practice buttjoints..just because you will burn through really easily...ive welded exhausts b4 but i still burn through every once in awhile.

Yeah, thanks Valo666, I pretty much came to the same conclusion after researching about the arc welder. I'm now looking into the MIG welder. I think having the welder will be cheaper in the long run for me because there are few changes that I was planning on doing to my exhaust system prior to my flex pipe busting out.

Are you registered on MNSportcompacts.net

99GT, I'm registered on MNsportcompacts but I'm hardly on there though; maybe twice a month or so.
Are on there often?

[99GT]

I'm on there daily. Boost Factory call Chuck up. There are many other as well.

[malecrod]

Well, I bought an MIG welder (just a cheapo), flex pipe and some flanges for my exhaust and somehow with some practice managed to replace the flex pipe. I also put the flanges at some strategic places to make it easier to remove the pipes in sections rather than removing the entire exhaust when something needs replacing. My next project is to put flanges at the muffler so that I can swap between an OEM type muffler (quite) and the magnaflow that I have on there now. They've just passed a noise ordinance in my area and I heard someone with a magnaflow muffler just got a "fix it" ticket.
Overall the exhaust work was not bad at all although my welds are not the prettiest but who's is looking? Total cost for MIG and flex pipe $165.
Just wanna follow up and let you guys know the route I took.
Thanks everyone for the input.