Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:46:43 -0800
Reply-To: "MacLachlan, Bill" <Bill.MacLachlan@CITY.BURNABY.BC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "MacLachlan, Bill" <Bill.MacLachlan@CITY.BURNABY.BC.CA>
Subject: Re: Exaust
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
On the other hand, in Vancouver BC go to Quiet Muffler on Kingsway.
Yesterday, they welded up my cracked exhaust pipe in jig time, ( deisel
pipe mind you). Runs nice and quiet again. They even tried not to
charge me, but when someone does such a nice job so fast, that just
ain't an option.
Bill M
82 GL
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Huskins [mailto:lostranger@MINDSPRING.COM]
Sent: January 14, 2004 12:17 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Exaust
On Wednesday, January 14, 2004, at 10:31 AM, C. Chris Snyder wrote:
> I can not find ANY exaust shop where I live that will take on the job.
> They state that Volkswagon uses steel bolts in an alinuim head and
> that the bolts always break and then the heads have to be taken off
> and the bolt drilled out etc.
My dad was in the exhaust business. A professional trick which never
fails is to heat the nut red with a torch, then quench it with water. A
trigger spray bottle such as those used for household cleaners works
fine. A hose is even better. I've used this method on several Vanagons.
I'm amazed at the number of exhaust shops which don't know what they're
doing. Case in point:
This past December 29 we were driving north along Interstate 81 through
the Shenandoah Valley. Just south of Staunton, VA, I developed a crack
in an exhaust pipe on my Tiico. Straightforward mig job on a lift. We
were directed to a Monroe muffler shop in Staunton. The gentleman there
told me that the fellow who had done their welding quit two months
earlier and that they had no one who could weld. Remember, this is
supposed to be an exhaust shop.
I asked if I could pay them to use their facilities and fix it myself.
At this point he remembered that their welder had broken the week
before. Seems odd since they supposedly had no one who could use it at
that point.
He directed me to a different Monroe muffler shop in Waynesboro, about
fifteen miles east. A young gentleman spent about five minutes with the
welder, did not get the leak sealed but did get it patched enough to get
us to our destination. For this incomplete job I was grossly
overcharged. Beware of those two shops if you travel that way.
Jim Huskins
Spruce Pine, NC
