SA has a point, you can't put low quality parts on cars and expect to get much out of them. I'm not saying price will depict the quality on a part. Just that if you put an exhaust part that will probably give out if you scrape and what not it'll suck to have spent that much money for nothing. No disrespect to top speed but I've seen the fitment for their exhausts and the tips stick out tremendously and that was kinda a deal breaker for me. I ended up going with the ark dts exhaust. I'm hoping to install it tomorrow. The exhaust was over 1k but hey it's well worth it. Good quality exhaust, has warranty, awesome welds, they clean the welds within the pipes to ensure good air flow, and not to mention the sound. Just make sure you make the right decision bud. It sucks to buy something for $300-$400 then later down the road think "I want something better but I already wasted $300-$400". Good luck :tup:

So if I send you two pipes of 304SS you can tell me which ones crap? How? I've seen many top brand exhausts. NONE!! of them stand up to my expectations but maybe FI since they sand the inside pipe down to flow match. But guess what?? I have a sander :tup: also Perrin Performance doesn't need to sand down the inside to flow match because their flanges start out CNC'd to be OD then 3/4 down is bored out to be ID. No need to sand because they are smart enough to do it right from the get go.

And like I said, FI use Vibrant resonators and probably similar mufflers. Vibrant for all I know is made in China or Taiwan. If they're not and US made (which i really dont care who makes stuff as long as its made well) ill spend the $128 I did on two 18"s and slap them puppies on.

You realize the tips stick out because they don't want the bumper to turn black/yellow right? Ever had a white car with flush or near flush mounted tips? Lol have fun cleaning. It sucks *** cause it will always stain slight yellow. O and you must polish it off. Soap and water don't touch the stains.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t/IMG_1698.jpg

Freshly washed car!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t/IMG_1696.jpg

20-30min of rubbing and rubbing.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...t/IMG_1697.jpg

It'd be $100 in materials alone+ gas for the welder+ an hourly rate for the fabricator making it+ some markup to make it worth it to the shop. I have to disagree sorry.

Only know because I made my own.

You got ripped off, lol, sorry

It's $5-10 pipe, $20 flanges (or just cut them off the muffler), time to weld/bend $70~.

I only know because I did this for a different car. Full straight pipes for my car was quoted at $200-300 for the 370

^^ I was quoted $250 for staight pipe-ing from the cats back. DEpointfive0 knows whats up.

You can easily get custom piping that looks similar to the short tails for less then $100. then the cost of nice tips.. ($50 or so)

I got the short tails so i didn't have to do any custom work. Sure they are overpriced. Everyone knows that. But they are simple bolt ons that ANYone can install with proper use of a wrench.

With that in mind, in the end its all personal preference.

Lol I guess I ripped myself off then. And im defending vendor prices not talking about what I paid.lol You forgot to add tips which if I recall AAM use's TI which is a little pricey. Some shops just know what their time and effort is worth, some don't. Simple as that.

304SS=$30
Tips=$100-$150
Time=$40/hr x 2 hours
Gas=$20?hard to price but a tank here is about $100 but youre only using a small portion of that.
Total:$240

That's before profit margins so really $3-400 isn't that bad.

^sorry!

But you still saved, and you helped out a local company! Always a good thing IMO :tup:

Haha its all good. I wasn't really too clear up above. I do like supporting my local shops. :tup:

Thats great for you that you can do that. Not everybody ( very very few actually ) have those capabilites and skills needed to perform that type of work. You need to quit focusing on what you can do and realise that the majority of people cannot do those things and therefore we choose to pay for quality. I could spout off a ton of stuff about what I do and have done as far as jobs in the AF go and stump 99.9% of people and they could do the same to me. The same applies to vehicles and who has the necessary skills and experience to perform that type of work.

I wasn't meaning to come across as it would be just me. As stated above by you guys a muffler shop can slap those puppies on for $20-40 for 30min of work. Back in the day I've had it done before. Takes an hour or so to bend and weld. It's not hard and not as expensive as a companies CBE is all. You can save easy 2/3rds the cost. Or spend about the same on eBay and maybe no more than $50 if something needs adjusted in the fitment or a weld reinforced. In the end the Chinese 304SS quality will be the same as anyone else's 304SS but will be hundreds of dollars less which to me doesn't make the eBay stuff junk is all.

I got ya bud. :tup: Just came off wrong with the brand bashing on the first page of the thread. Info is great! I use this site a ton. Just brand bashing isn't cool.

Well I don't know what to call it then. If someone doesn't know the 3 different ways a pipe can be welded to a flange, I think the lesser ways need called out and its a crapy way to do something in my opinion. I'm only trying to get my info out there so people make the best choice. I mean back in the day we used muzzle loaders. Now we have center fire cartridges. Both will kill you, ones just a better way of doing it. If I bash or call someone out on doing it old school then we all win if they change their design :ughdance:

haha ok so I'll go ahead and throw in my $.02 about our AAM short tails since this topic comes up pretty much everytime they're mentioned. Without making it sound like a sales pitch this was the premise behind why we designed them.

• When the Z first came out, only big dogs designed and sold systems, much of these were your JDM brands, easily $1k+. Short tails = sound of a catback without the price tag. BUT now with many other competitors in the game, there are full catbacks you can buy for the price of our short tails, the decision is yours. I won't make any comments on quality, fitment, customer support, etc. Your car, your money, your mods
• Simple bolt-on; I'm not sure if it gets any easier, but another perk is being able to do this at home, in your own garage. If you can jack up your car and turn a wrench, chances are you can put this on with confidence
• Quality material, precision TIG weld, mandrel bent.. take it to an exhaust shop, you may or may not get all the following. Does it matter? Well I'm sure to some it does, to some saving a few bucks is more important, and that's fine
• It's a muffler delete, there are no secrets behind our system, If you get it done at a muffler shop, I assure you it will sound VERY similar, if not identical.

So when you value the short tails, it may seem over priced for a couple pipes with tips, but at the end of the day you can rest assure it's a quality piece, no headaches on this or that. Can you save money by doing it at a muffler shop? YES. Will it sound similar if not the same? YES. Will it be up to par in quality? MAYBE. Does quality matter? That's up to your "modding mentality"!