You have to find a place that weld's stainless steel.
Are there any machine shops in your area that do custom hot-rods that fabricate stainless headers ?

It would be nearly impossible to weld in situ, so it would be tacked in place on one side while the other side is held in place with a band clamp _ this should allow things to line up ???

 

The pipe is easy to cut with a bandsaw, that would be no problem for a muffler shop. Or a metal cutting disk in an angle grinder would make short work of it.

Just for my clarity, you now have a 4" stub that bolts to your manifolds. You then need to adapt that to the standard downpipe that has the dount seal, and the proposed solution was to cut off the dount portion and clamp or weld the stubs to that?

If you are doing a butt joint, the clamp you want is a Walker 36538. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...785244&jsn=267

Also talk to motorcycle custom shops, 1.75" is a standard Harley Davidson exhaust size.

Thinking about it though, I wouldn't want to clamp a vertical joint. With heat and vibration, I wouldn't be surprised to have the pipe slide out over time. You could clamp it and then tack weld the clamp to the pipe though. The later Jaguars (1990's and onwards) have tack welded clamps.

 

this is why I never patronize muffler shops. All they can do is weld and tighten U clamps with air tools.

 

Jagboi 64 asks : "Just for my clarity, you now have a 4" stub that bolts to your manifolds. You then need to adapt that to the standard downpipe that has the dount seal, and the proposed solution was to cut off the dount portion and clamp or weld the stubs to that?" Answer: Yes, you are 100% correct, that is the situation I'm faced with. As for the joint clamp, This would be a lap joint, not a butt joint as the 4" stub slides over the downpipe. I also am skeptical of a vertical lap joint clamp holding up over time. I'm liking the suggestion that I clamp the damn pipes together with the lap joints and then take them to the muffler shop gorillas and have a tack weld hold the whole shooting match together. Of course, this assumes that there is no exhaust leaking between the clamps and the pipes....I am not willing to bet the farm on that proposition ! I wonder if I could get the clamps totally welded to the downpipes OR (maybe better yet). get the the stubbs bolted up to the installed manifolds, then slide the down pipe up into the stubb, then mark the fitting in such a way ( vertical majic marker line ?) that I could then take it apart and over to a welding shop that can properly weld the stainless stubb to the downpipe at the correct orientation. Of course I'd first have to have the male end of the downpipe cut off first.

Peter3442: Do you know how I could contact the honorable Julian Barratt - the only contact links I can find seem go to SNG's various Sales Offices. I'd like to address the Founder of the company , if I could. - as you can imagine, I'm not the happiest of customers.
Schmitty

 

No guarantee, but I'd try to email julianbarratt@sngbarratt.com

Another possibility is to telephone their office in Bridgnorth UK and request to speak with him
... 44 1746 765 432

It's unfortunate, but my experience is that, even with the very best organisations, you have to aim at the top to put things right when they go wrong.

I should say that on the two occasions that I've met him he's given me every impression of being a decent, helpful person.

 

During my restoration I found Mr Barratt to be most helpful & accommodating. Right down to using his personal contacts in the industry to help. e.g. finding NOS front orange flasher lights still in their original boxes with matching lens colour. It varied in colour left to right on some batches. All via my own consultant Thomas Rochelle who he allocated to looking after me. Thomas was an absolute gem & has moved up in the organisation.

 

just a guess... but for the amount of money it would cost them to make it right, the bad press for not making it right would pale in comparison. not to mention the fact that, although having heard only one POV, it is simply the right thing to do.

 

Here is an email exchange I had in 2017.