Exhaust Manifolds

Exhaust Manifolds

Author
Discussion

neutral 3

Original Poster:

6,356 posts

169 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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Looking to replace with stainless, but £1,200 plus Vat is crazy.
Any ideas ?

phillpot

17,105 posts

182 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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Welcome to Crazyland smile

£900 + vat................. stainless manifolds

Edited by phillpot on Tuesday 12th March 04:52

spitfire4v8

3,990 posts

180 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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Why is it crazy and how much do you think they should cost?

It's a low volume part .. stainless materials / welding consumables / labour / business running costs / profit for the maker and re-seller .. no-one is becoming mega rich at 900-1200 pounds!

Moose v8

204 posts

65 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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Yes, I need some for mine that's the cheaper option, saving for Clive ford equal length manifolds . I know why they are summer cars. Takes 6 months to save up for repairs such a crap job to do as well. Wouldn't sell good luck

jesfirth

1,743 posts

241 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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eBay. There are manifolds on there at sensible money.

jojackson4

3,026 posts

136 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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jesfirth said:
eBay. There are manifolds on there at sensible money.
I can’t find them
STD ones are£240 per side

BIG DUNC

1,918 posts

222 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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spitfire4v8 said:
Why is it crazy and how much do you think they should cost?

It's a low volume part .. stainless materials / welding consumables / labour / business running costs / profit for the maker and re-seller .. no-one is becoming mega rich at 900-1200 pounds!
This

If I want to buy a decent exhaust manifold for my four cylinder Mazda hot hatch, it will be over 900 USD plus shipping and import duty.

Makes £1200 for a pair of manifolds for much lower volume V8 application look cracking value.

fieryfred

238 posts

80 months

Tuesday 12th March 2019
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When Joolz was doing his thing, i heard another thing after the full chat run.
put put tap tap Oh joy of joys a blowing manifold gasket.
On removal a water test showed one manifold had a small leak.
That was going to be £150 to cut open & reweld. Ok dirt cheap if you have your own gear.
The other manifold had already been removed & welded & nothing in the service history.
I wanted Clive F manifolds despite the price, unfortunately they are on back order & i wanted the car up & running.
So i bought the cheaper stainless manifolds, you can only see them when you open the bonnet.
So the £150 went towards new manifolds & the job needed doing only once. Yipee.
The brave will say easy peasy, i will say once only.
Cost wise new manifolds look a good price compared to fleabay used items.
If you have a welder & want a set of manifolds PM me.

neutral 3

Original Poster:

6,356 posts

169 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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And to think that in 94, I bought a new pair of HeadMan headers for my Edelbrock equipped 69 Stingray, from
Customville in Seven Kings, for circa £150 quid !

clive f

7,250 posts

232 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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just to give an insight into making a pair of standard stainless steel manifolds,

materials- water jet cut head flanges, cnc machined v band flanges, 3" pipe bends, 1 3/4" tube x 3m, 1 3/4" bends, total £210.

cost to machine head flanges after welding, £80.

With a selling price of £1150, that leaves me £860 to make a pair of manifolds, pack and send away, it takes me 32 hours to do this, giving me an hourly rate of £26.87 !

my fabrication business needs to charge out at £40p/hr to turn a profit.

you might be taking your TVR to a garage and paying £50 to £70 an hour in labour charges and not batting an eyelid....................

QBee

20,904 posts

143 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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....or your German daily driver to a main dealer and paying well over £100+ VAT per hour for some 18 year old trainee to put his oily mitts all over it.... and then charge every little extra they can bill you, all without batting an eyelid.

Clive's stainless manifolds are a work of art made by a skilled craftsman, and many of his products also improve the perfomance of our cars as well as giving us enormous pleasure and bragging rights at TVR car shows.

Many a TVR specialist struggles to pay himself as much as he pays his staff, despite charging £50-70 per hour. The overheads involved in running a garage business or an engineering workshop are not small, I can assure you. I am an accountant to a number of small engineering and car servicing businesses, so speak from experience.

Well done Mr Ford - you have given many of us a great deal of pleasure in our TVRs.

When all is said and done, nobody is making us buy these wonderful creations, but the TVR world would be a sadder place without them

bobfather

11,171 posts

254 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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QBee said:
Well done Mr Ford - you have given many of us a great deal of pleasure in our TVRs.
Here here. you turn engine bays into art clap

Moose v8

204 posts

65 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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Yes. Mr ford's manifolds are on my Christmas list. Quality doesn't come cheap.

Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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Agreed with all said in defence of small scale manufacturers, if Clive could do a Y with a Cat in it I’d be mad for one yes


Andav469

957 posts

136 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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I can vouch for Mr Fords High Quality Manifolds and Y Piece, mine are 3 years old, this pic was taken last week smile


cp81

325 posts

132 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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Very nice but how do you get away with no CATs?

I too voucher for Clive F quality, service and advice.

Andav469

957 posts

136 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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cp81 said:
Very nice but how do you get away with no CATs?

I too voucher for Clive F quality, service and advice.
The Y Piece can be changed for the original catted Y Piece in 20 minutes, the pre cats in the Manifolds are not required for the MOT Test

BIG DUNC

1,918 posts

222 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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Andav469 said:
cp81 said:
Very nice but how do you get away with no CATs?

I too voucher for Clive F quality, service and advice.
The Y Piece can be changed for the original catted Y Piece in 20 minutes, the pre cats in the Manifolds are not required for the MOT Test
The MOT test says that any cat originally fitted has to be there for the test. As it happens most MOT testers don’t know what was there originally and don’t bother to look it up although they could easily do so.

The problem is really the emissions part of the test where you really do need a cat to get through, unless you have a bent tester. Some call this a friendly tester, but why would you ask a friend to risk his (her) career for you?

Some go to the effort of refitting cats for the test, but actually that really is a lot of hassle.

Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Wednesday 13th March 2019
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I think there could be quite a market for a Stainless Catted Y going forward. For many who are not prepared to go de cat as they don’t have a friendly tester available and don’t fancy removing it or simply don’t hsve the skills / confidence to do so shy away from one.
If a Catted Y was available I’d like to think more people would then buy Clive’s manifolds to match.
Cats are not cheap though and I could see the price for one being something in the region of £1000 for a fabricator to make them up.
But because they look so pretty and Clive’s work sets off a Tvr bay like few other things I think there could be loads of owners out there who want to stay Catted who would buy one.
Forget the performance gain for a moment it instantly makes the car look better and looked after will last a long time. Rusty exhausts look so naff!
Purely as a cosmetic thing I think Catted Stainless Y would sell and help sell more manifold sets too as ones no good without the other.
I loved having Clive’s Y in my car but couldn’t be sure of MOT and I personally don’t like the stink of de Catt so sold it much to my dismay but I stay Catted for a few reasons one being it’s quieter.
If I’d stayed with that shiny Y I’d defo been interested in manifolds but I just don’t do de Catt frown




Sardonicus

18,928 posts

220 months

Thursday 14th March 2019
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Andav469 said:
I can vouch for Mr Fords High Quality Manifolds and Y Piece, mine are 3 years old, this pic was taken last week smile

Flash bd rolleyes ....................................... Dave that looks the dogs smokin