I really could replace my 1966 Ford Mustang’s exhaust by myself. All the parts are available, and I’d just use a bunch of clamps to squeeze it all together; it really would be no big deal. And yet, here I sit at a muffler shop in Van Nuys, California about to be out $800. That’s a lot of scratch! And it hurts! I’m not sure I like this feeling, and I’m a little worried it could become the new normal.
As has been made clear in a number of my previous articles: My life has become a bit more complicated than it was before in Michigan, where I was a single man with only one job: make content to feed blogs. Delicious, juicy, click-inducing blogs. As a result of that life’s simplicity, I had lots of time, which meant I could wrench. Non-stop.
Nowadays I have more responsibilities as EIC of The Autopian, plus I have a more complex personal life. So time is hard to come by, which means I can’t wrench as much as I used to.
There are some jobs that I will not pay for. Brake work? For get it; I’m doing that myself. Engine work? I got that; I’m not going to spend thousands to have someone else do work that I may not have faith in. I know that, if I do the job myself, it’ll be done properly.
There are some jobs, though, that require a specialist. Brazing up a bad radiator? I’ll have an expert handle that. Paint? Yup, an expert. Aligning my car? I could use a tape measure, but why not just have an expert with laser machines do that? Exhaust?
Well, exhaust I could just do myself. Check out the hole in this thing:
As this exhaust shop here in Van Nuys points out: This thing needs a whole new exhaust. The pipe is as thin as paper. And, what’s more, I hate the location of that muffler; it’s right up against the fuel hose.
I could get a whole new exhaust, though, for only $330! And I’d just put it all together and clamp it with some U-Bolts. It’d take some time (which I don’t have), but it’s really not that hard of a job.
But I don’t have time. My brother (the spiritual owner of this Mustang) is flying in on Thursday, and I want him to enjoy his car for the first time (yes, he’s never driven it). So this shop is going to do an entire new exhaust — a big one 2.5-inch one with a Flowmaster 42441 repackaged ahead of the axle — for $800. A bit dear, yes, and I kinda regret not having haggled, but hey, it’s where we’re at.
As someone who typically does his own work on his cars — including exhaust work – I feel really weird. As a certified cheap bastard, I hate spending money, but I need to remind myself: I do almost all other work myself. I’ll be swapping the master cylinder myself later today. That’s saving probably at least $150. I tune my own carbs, I do my own electrical — I can pay someone to do my exhaust every now and then, right?
Why do I feel so bad about this?
[looks into wallet]
Oh yeah, that’s why.
Don’t worry, David. Spending gobs of money only hurts until you become numb to it.
Exhaust work is the worst and the first to be “sub’d out” in my life. Mark my words..the day will come when you set out on the road (not off road) without a pack of tools because you’re not about to be doing roadside repairs.
Many years ago my G20 needed a new power steering pump. I did it, and it was a bit obnoxious because of the clearance to the frame rail (my current self would find it less bad). That was about the time I discovered ratcheting box-end wrenches, I recall. The next year, my SE-R also required a new PS pump. I conclulded that I’d already learned everything there was to learn about the job the first time, and it wasn’t fun, so I paid a shop. I think that was the first time I ever did that, other than the SE-R’s starter dying in the middle of a road trip (that was the first part failure I ever had on that car, at 190k miles!) But as I get older, and as I have more demands on my time but the same amount of time to fulfill those demands, the more I’m willing to pay someone. Typically I’ll figure out what the top projects are that will result in the biggest reductions in cognitive overhead, and I send those to a shop (or prioritize it myself).
Sometimes we have to and it ends up okay. My own example: broken control arm and broken parking brake cable on my 2013 RAV4. It failed a past due mandatory inspection and I had to pay $1300 for the privilege of having a safe and legal car. I’ve messed around with parking brakes enough to hate them and the control arm was a PITA the first time around. The dealer got the car done the same day to boot. I got to spend the time with my family instead of out in the garage cursing at a job I hate.
It balanced out by me DIY’ing front brakes, a sway bar endlink and a brake fluid flush on my other car in record time a month later. I’m still far into the black from DIY’ing stuff I’m good at.
See David, this is what happens… go in peace, all is forgiven.
Okay, where is David Tracy and what have you done with him?
I always love how muffler shops offer a lifetime guarantee on the muffler, but not on the pipe or the labor. As one shop owner told me “its cheap advertising and they keep that warranty in the glove box“
This is going to be a much better job than the one you would do yourself anyways. You made the right call here.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that, what he pictured above is a direct copy of the factory system and he would have put it together with clamps so it could be serviced in the future. These guys are making their own as they see fit and are likely to weld things up so it can’t be easily serviced in the future. If something like a transmission removal becomes necessary it may a nightmare. Been there done that too many times on cars with custom exhaust.
Honestly, I don’t know why you feel bad. $800 for a whole system isn’t bad at all. You’re busy and having the money to pay someone for a task isn’t a sin. They have to eat too.
True, and they’re great guys. Even bought me lunch! The Flowmaster 40 Series sounds incredible!
David, you say this like it’s a bad thing. There’s nothing new you’d be learning by doing this job, and you should save what wrenching hours you have for passion projects or projects that teach you new skills or ones that advance the cause of the website. Welcome to adult wisdom, my friend.
I’ll happily spend hours on my Jag, but I farm out virtually all work on my daily and my utility vehicle.
You have a point, but my counterpoint is: I am tired of every job being a learning experience that I would do such a better job at the second time around. It feels really good doing a thing well because you already made your learning experience mistakes the last time.
Point well taken.
What? No. This is the internet – fight me!
Showing his true Sensei chops here by avoiding the pointless fights!
The internet will surely get its blood somewhere else though…
You are becoming professional. As Mark Novak says “an amateur spends time to save resources, a professional spend resources to save time”.
I still struggle with this and the reason it feels bad is because I can’t shake the feeling
But dude, hard as it is to truly accept, your time is the more valuable family resource, and not by a little. Adam Savage says it best when he says that when you’re young time is the resource you have the most of and is the least valuable to you, but when you’re older and more experienced your time becomes your most valuable resource and the hardest to come by.
It’s the way life works. You’ve got to settle into the idea that you don’t have the time and energy to do everything anymore and sometimes it makes sense to pay someone to take things you could do off of your plate so you can take care of those things it has to be you doing.
Easier said than done. Despite my having said the above I’ve not yet managed to take my own advice on this.
Any reason to stick with the 2-1-2 exhaust and not full duals?
I actually prefer a single exhaust. I value precious underbody packaging space. Plus, this Mustang didn’t come with rear exhaust cutouts in the fascia, so it’s just going to be a turned-down pipe anyway.
but why not just have an expert with laser machines do that?
Because laser machines are overkill for a 60 yo live axle car.
Yes, you’re trading money for time, but we all do that. We have jobs, which are exactly that. Sometimes it’s quite simply about where you get the most value for your time, given the responsibilities and consequences of that tradeoff. DO NOT feel bad. While there is value in doing a job yourself, there is value in other’s expertise, and in freeing up your time for other use.
You really need to learn that every hour of your time equals a certain amount of money. Your not wasting money, you are buying time.
And that’s how people end up working 3 hours to pay someone else for an hour of easy work.
But in one hour someone else may complete what it takes me 6 hours and 4 trips to the parts store to fail to complete. Know your weaknesses.
Exactly. Shit happens. YMMV
You have to climb the learning curve to summit it
Besides this is easy peasy work for someone like DT.
Don’t forget all the things you’ll buy at the parts and tool stores that you don’t actually need for THIS job but might come in handy one day.
He’s saving money all over the place!
If it’s something you enjoy doing or have the extra time to do it, go right ahead! But if its something you need done and you can pay people to allow you to work on other cars or spend time with your family or friends, that’s incredibly valuable.
If you’ve ever had a near death experience, you know that time is faaarrrr more valuable than money.
Been there, done that several times. If we are lucky enough to get a 2nd chance we should value time over money by a ton. I have had 4, 2nd chances.
Tryin not to waste a minute anymore. But shit happens.
I don’t know for sure, but sort of feel DT is still too young to really comprehend this idea. But I wish him the best.
Happy 4th!
And yet people still live to work
No shortage of fools out there. Just drive on the roads and see.
As EIC, couldn’t you just make SWG drive out and do the work for you? Maybe you could let him do that Jag story in exchange. At least I think that was SWG; it’s been awhile.
We all go through this. I had to replace an exhaust manifold gasket on my V6 Explorer years ago. Despite having all the tools, the know-how, and the time, I opted to take it to a shop. It was my first time ever taking my car to a shop to have work done (I’d gone once before to have something diagnosed, but did my own work after). It felt weird, but the $500 I spent was well worth not spending the time doing it myself.
IMO you’re not paying $800 for exhaust.
You are paying $570 as an occasional cost for this new life of yours, which by the accounts you share, seems beautiful.
Seems worth it to me, no question.
This is the way. As I get older I’ve come to realize this. You get to spend a couple hours working from the lobby of a muffler shop and it’s done and over with. You get to enjoy the car, and spend time with people you want to. Go cruise Rodeo dr or PCH with that rumbling V8 with no worries about leaky exhaust clamps or crappy exhaust hangers.
Honestly $800 doesn’t sound like a bad price for a whole new exhaust system.
There are tasks I can do myself, and I do. There are some I can’t or don’t feel comfortable with (like springs), so I pay someone for those. Then there are tasks I could do but are a huge pain and yield very little sense of accomplishment. Exhaust falls into that category.
You should use your position as EIC of the Autopian to haggle the price down by offering partnership. By partnership I mean mentioning their shop name and you getting it done cheaper.
In fairness, the garage space offered in most single-family Pontiac Aztecs is fairly limited. And with the weather in Los Angeles being so unpredictable, Who knows when you would have a clear sunny day to talk said job outside?
I pity the dwellers of Pontiac Aztecs zoned for duplexes.
It was a real mess trying to do an oil change in Tenochtitlan, no space at all. Probably like, “Who built this city in the middle of a lake!”.
As I age, by far, my biggest challenge is to pay for work I could / used to do myself. At 67, I think this year will be the first ever shop oil change! Prayers…
I hit 66 this year, but I haven’t thrown in the towel on that yet. Just got some QuickJacks, and they are wonderful. I have a project Tahoe on them and I can move it up and down without thinking about it. If I have to get under the dash, I raise it all the way up and then just a little bend down to see what I’m working on!
67 next week. Today I spent $100 bucks on my first ever shop oil change.
Not even the best service which was $126+ tax.
Realize could have done it in the driveway, like the last 50 years.
But at our age time = more life.
Can always get more money, hard to get more time.
The question is how much time – perhaps grinding your teeth at a job you hate – will you need to spend to earn back that $100 (labor)+ tax + gas +commuting expenses?
Probably a couple of hours vs spending 15 minutes changing your oil on the driveway.
Where I am it’s usually close to 100 degrees by 8 am. Yesterday we were at 116 with the heat index. Shit.
Am retired now. And stuff hurts most of the time. As such an oil change takes me close to 1 1/2 hours or more by the time I return the old oil to Auto Zone to recycle.
And that job at my age is a pain in the ass. YMMV?
It’s the same story here, too. It’s been over 95 and a heat index well past 100 for almost two weeks, with a slight reprieve from a storm a few days ago. It’s just been heat advisory on top of heat advisory.
Add in how Advance bitches and moans when I bring oil and, while it’s not enough to kill the appeal of diy, is much diminished
Absolutely YMMV. All I ask is people be honest in their maths. A six figure incomed person working 120 hrs a week is going to have very different math from a healthy but poor young person living in suburbia 5 minutes from Walmart. IMO way too many people get that math ass backwards.
If it makes you feel better this holiday weekend I’m putting my labor where my mouth is. We also have a heat wave going, almost as high as yours and wouldn’tya know it, I need an oil change. My plan is get it done early in the cool morning with a siesta later.
You really like grinding this axe for some reason, although I do understand it cuts to your username as well.
I don’t understand why it’s so hard to believe that different people have different priorities. And that not everyone lives under the same circumstances.
There are plenty of folks in my area near retirement age that wouldn’t even need the 1hr to earn back $100+tax.
This also isn’t the boonies, gas and commuting (to the shop where the work is being done) is often under a mile or two. And if you meant work, people drive their car to take the train here in many cases, so no problem there either.
If you’re making a good salary near retirement, not roasting your ass off in the summer sun (not everyone has a garage or even a driveway) can be a smart decision around these parts.
At a minimum $100/hr @ 8 hrs a day five days a week for 50 work weeks a year is an income of $200k. Factoring in all the expenses you’re talking closer to an income of $250k+/year and that’s not counting time lost commuting, salaried employee longer hours, etc. If you’re making that kind of money fine but that is NOT typical, even in very high COLAs. If you’re not making that kind of money you’re just fooling yourself.
And nobody says you have to roast in the sun. Old people are famous early risers – just do it in the morning before it gets hot.
Jeez!
Yes, we live in NY. Those are realistic salaries for doctors, lawyers, and even those who work certain trades in this area near retirement age (where they are likely to be earning a healthy hourly rate after a lifetime of building their business and salary).
But I’m not even sure why we are pretending that you need to make that much money to claw back the cost of an oil change. Most people cannot gather the materials for an oil change, perform a drain and fill, clean up, and then dispose of fluids in 15 or even 30 minutes while in their driveway, carport, or garage. For many of us, that is going to take a bit longer. And the cost of having it done somewhere on the way to work is likely something we can recoup in about an hour.
If it’s not….. don’t do it. I’m not saying it’s the right decision for everyone. Unlike some other people, I realize that one person’s answer is not everyone’s answer.
“just do it in the morning before it gets hot.”
No. It’s a PITA to do where I live. Having it done costs me $60+tax and 10 minutes of my life. That’s a worthwhile trade IMO. You don’t like it, that’s fine. But don’t pretend some of us didn’t do the math.
Getting up early in some places would net you 87 degrees vs the 100+ you’ll see later in the day and would do absolutely nothing in the winter by me.
So again, no.
At 63, some projects (exhaust systems) just aren’t as much fun as they used to be, so they get hired out.
As I age, I find that I have both less time available than I used to and more money than I used to.
Spending money that you have to save time that you don’t is a good trade-off. Sometimes that’s just the way it is.
David, you are my spiritual brother from another mother. I recently had a transmission upgrade installed in my car which I had been meaning to do for the last 6 years or so. I paid someone to do it and my back thanks me. It’s hard to stay in my lane and remember that I’ve brought it to the professionals which should know all about the little details to get it done right.