ok, just towed my bus down to the exhaust place (rope towing on steep hills = fun :thumb ). was quoted $550 for a simple exhaust! all i wanted to do was get a pipe to run from the original subaru headers up the body, into a muffler, then do a U-turn and come back out the side infront of the drivers side rear wheel. the exhaust guys were iffy about the legalities of running the exhaust there,and once the car was up on the hoist decided it would have to go up over the suspension and out the back, and that my headers were too low and they would have to replace them (in my best interests). now the headers are only a centimeter (at most) lower then the sump and engine mount, and curve up nicely around the gearbox and out of the way. although they are low compared to the car's body, being a kombi they are still a good reasonable distance ( i think ) from the ground.
i am sure that a complete custom exhaust would be a wonderful thing, but can i really justify the cost? do you think (beside the 1cm extra ground clearance) there would be any performance or durability benifit over using the original headers with them building the rest? i presume subaru knew what they were doing when designing the headers?
any advice or opinions greatly appreciated as the car i have left at their shop and i would like to give them a final verdict early tomorrow
thanks guys
Ryan
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The joys of conversions, EXY...but FASTer
They laugh because You are different, You laugh because They are all the same.
check out
www.lowlight.com.au for low lights only..
Too expensive. Should be about half that price. Ring around and get quotes.
How about pitch the whole suby idea and go back to a 1600?
Damned hard to say if you don't know the exact BoM being used and a fair bit of bending to go one etc etc etc:sandrine
Let me out, When I call my name
IGOR is ALIVE !!!! 😎
yeah, recon i will get them to use the orig headers and go from there. i had another place in mind but i was going to have to wait a week and a half to get the work done, at least these guys are going to do it on the spot. they tell me that the high quality muffler is going to be $150 alons, so hopefully the whole exhaust will be bulletproof once they're finished
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
dubcab, car was actually a 2l originally, i bought it as a subi conversion with a 1600 subi engine with a joke of an exhaust, thought Id keep things simple by sticking with a soobi engine (big mistake - not simple - but will have a more powerful and reliable beast in the end)
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
go to the zhaust place, go pick a zhaust out of the bin, ask them if it will fit an old ????cc its an emergancy fit then well come get one fitted with you properply when the car can make it.
they usually throw near new ones out off cars and install the turbo ones on teh jap crappers.........
should give it to ya, go when they busy 🙂
sometimes they leave there bins outside
thats one parts for free 🙂
tehe, nice idea. well i rang them this morning and they promised to knock the price down to $425, so i went ahead with it and got them to do a rwc check whilst they were there. rwc was better then expected, dont want to think what new upper ball joints is going to cost though, and possibly new disks. exhaust is a really nice job, they have made it amazingly straight and clean, but then when i went to pay they had the cheek to charge GST (which was included in the initial quote, although they now deny this). so now i have a very good but rather expensive exhaust,and no money to spend on the balljoints or engineers certificate.
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
just noticed the rwc check isnt even on an official roadworthy page. is this still a legal document? also, he has only given me 7days to get everything fixed. is that legal? i thought it was 30 days?
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No idea about vic RWC's, but is my experience 400 - 500 for a full exhaust from a good exhaust shop is good value. Remember you get what you pay for - mandrel bends vs press bends etc etc.
Factory headers are almost always crap too - they are designed to be mass produced at the lowest cost possible, and often with big space restrictions. You should find the scoobi gets along a bit quicker now that it can breath properly, plus it will sound well wicked 🙂
A RWC check is not a legal 'certificate' What they have done is checked what you need to get the certificate and if you fix those items listed within the timeframe specified they are prepared to write out an 'official' certificate.
They cant reall give you the certificate until it is all done. Yeah? And they cant wait months for you to do it either as there would be other parts of the vehicle that may become unroadworthy in that time.
baybuscamperkid wrote:just noticed the rwc check isnt even on an official roadworthy page. is this still a legal document? also, he has only given me 7days to get everything fixed. is that legal? i thought it was 30 days?
sounds pretty dodgy! From $550 - $425 is a big drop - because they thought they were going to loose the business! Just goes to show they plucked that price from the air- a good tradesman will know his costs and will be able to move a bit but not that much!! Also - it is illegal to quote any price for any goods or services without including the GST!!!!! If they say thats $x + GST = $x thats ok, but a quote is the finished quote full-stop!! They cant add GST on top - there pulling their puds!! This is certainly not the accepted practice out there but it is the law and if you force the point with a written quote you will win, or they will get slammed!!
As for the RWC- ring the Dpt transport and ask them if this mob of half baked wankers are registered to perform RWC's and what the process is! (edited because i just noticed your in Vic!)
Sorry for the spite but im sick of underskilled, overpriced, pud pullers ripping people off! Even when you know what your talking about theyll try it on! Go with your instincts - if it sounds dodgy IT PROBABLY F####N WELL IS
:duh
[Edited on 8-4-2005 by VWENVY]
True about the price. If a price is quoted it is deemed to be including GST unless otherwise stated. Verbal quotes, well they are not really worth the paper they are written on, so unless the $425 was written, then that makes it harder.
For example all prices in our store have '+GST' stamped on them.
If they are a registered RWC business then by law they MUST have the 'VicRoads Licenced Roadworthy Tester' and number sign displayed on the building at all times.
Does anyone have any work for a custom panel beater available. I charge $110 an hour including GST. I am an overskilled, well priced custom fabricator and engineer and I know what I am talking about.
There are a lot of others like me out there, you just have to be prepared to pay a fair price for what we can do.
U2U me if you wanna chat - advice is free
Hey Ryan - sent you a pic by e-mail of my bay kombi's exhaust
Let me out, When I call my name
IGOR is ALIVE !!!! 😎
baybuscamperkid wrote:just noticed the rwc check isnt even on an official roadworthy page. is this still a legal document? also, he has only given me 7days to get everything fixed. is that legal? i thought it was 30 days?
Check the Vicroads website. Yes you do only have 7 days to get the items fixed (presumably for the reasons Helbus stated). The certificate itself is only valid for 30 days.
I thought the process was to use the RWC form but do 2 checks. In the first one any defects are noted. In the 2nd check (hopefully) all the defects are ticked off as ok. I suppose doing the first check on a piece of paper saves on forms if you don't go through with the roadworthy!
😀baybuscamperkid wrote:...rwc was better then expected, dont want to think what new upper ball joints is going to cost though, and possibly new disks. ....
The Ball joints themselves should be cheap. They retail for US$16.95 on BusDepot.
http://www.busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=211405371Agreat. thanks for all the advice guys. the balljoint price makes me a bit happier and i have started the car today and it sounds sooo sweet, would never believe it was that little 1.8l engine hidden in there. if i take that list of things to fix to my local VW dude (who has a licenced RWC guy working for him) will he use the list or will he be obligated to disregard it and start a RWC from scratch?
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
Just ask him to fix what needs to be done for a roadworthy because youve already paid money out for it! He wont care, hes getting the work to fix the problems anyway! Unless you dont want the bus to go back to the other mob!
well, Im not a big fan of the idea of taking it back to them, especially since i get the impression that it will cost me another $70plus GST for another RW anyway
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
It is normal to have to pay for the RWC check. $70 sounds about right. If you go back to them within 7 days with the items done, they should issue the certificate and that will should not cost you anything. The certificate will then be valid for 30 days.
I got a RWC the other week on the EH Limo and that cost me $65 + gst. Everthing passed and I got my certificate.
anybody know if front end balljoints are adjustable?
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
They are not adjustable and if they have movement they are to be replaced.
any good ways to check for movement?
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
Have you got a engineer to do your report??
I have a contact who is a VW nut that is a certified engineer that can do your bus. U2U me if you need the contact.
Can you get it to the Jamboree??
STEALTH
stealth, you have u2u, yes still looking for engineer
Reimagined/Recycled/Upcycled Cool
