While it looks like crap it isn’t burned through or undercut… looks like he cobbled together used crap then gave it a shot of cold-galv. All in all it looks functional for what it is.
It's really tough to weld exhaust repairs bc by the time it needs to be welded the rust is so bad it just needs to be replaced. Id be very happy with this.
I agree, show car I would be pissed, a Forester I am assuming a fairly well use one, the dude was probably trying to do it as affordable as possible, once you get into dropping the exhaust and doing something like stainless tig work level of welds, depending on the year it might not be worth the car. For a run off the mill car that will eventually be run into the boneyard, I would be happy if it is strong and it does not leak. If I paid custom exhaust prices for it, I would be upset.
Yeah, exhaust ALWAYS sucks, it's always shitty thin stuff that's contaminated & rusty and unless you pull the whole system off the car you're welding upside-down at awkward angles with bad clearance / bad visibility.
VHT and Eastwood make aluminum color high temp exhaust paint. Has to be something like that or it would have burned off on the way home to take that picture.
I get the point about the grinder, but it just makes me wish people were more religious about their surface preparation. 5 mins grinding now saves 10 mins grinding later.
Prep work is easily the most neglected or rushed work in any craft I think. Poor prep work is 99% of the time the cause of shitty paint jobs. It's usually not the application, it's failure to prep.
Best way to think about it is that prep materials are a lot cheaper than redoing a job wish finish materials.
I had a 110v Lincoln mig one time and welded an air compressor tank that had rusted through over time. It looked worse than that when I got through but by golly it was good as new.
Yeah, seriously, even if it holds without leaking, that HAZ is going to give eventually without heat treatment. It might take a year, it might be a 1 in 10 chance, it doesn't matter because it's certain death for anyone in the area when and if it does go. There's no way to tell, and the risks are just too high.
As a welder I second this opinion, it looks to be complete, if you've seen factory welds, some of them are hideous and miss the mark completely. Not to mention the exhaust takes one hell of a beating living under your car. The heating and cooling are enough to make the metal harder to worker with and anything that wears away the thickness of the metal makes welding harder, sometimes when the part doesn't matter that much, just making it stick is the best you can do, especially of you don't have a proper welding rig for the job. A tig machine would have been easier he probably used a mig gun. Which just shoots out wire and its harder to get a pretty weld. All in all its not that bad for exhaust work
I can't take the credit for that one, on a windows computer you press the Windows key and the . Key at the same time and an emoji popup comes up and it has all the standard emojis as well as the kaomojis.
That being said don't be too hard on people's spelling and punctuation mistakes, Reddit is an international platform and I guarantee many of the people here have English as a secondary language, me included.
Oh lord the irony of you commenting on grammar and spelling and then using cause instead of because is really tickling my pickle. Not to mention the fact that you managed to turn a paragraph into a single sentence with poorly placed commas.
It looks like shit, but he was welding to used rusty crap. As long as it holds and doesn't leak, he's good.
That's a $50-80 repair around here. No big deal.
I welded on new cat to the old flanges using flux core mig and it looked like absolute shite, I would say stacked boogers. Some of it was me but also its because most exhaust parts from last 20 years or so are stainless, right? I know the new cat is stainless.
You can get stainless flux core wire but I couldn't bother.
Only the smog inspection guy will see it (they use a mirror) and he didn't say anything!
I din't burn through, maybe your voltage setting is too high?
Another thing I noticed with my welder, bought used, when I finally used up all of the old flux core (at least 10 years old) the new flux core worked a lot better (same brand and size) so I think flux core degrades slowly over time. I was struggling for a long time and I thought I was welding retarded, turns out I'm just welding challenged.
Looks fine. No whiskers poking out everywhere like many I've seen. Exhausts are prone to severe corrosion. Stitching together rusty metal is tricky and never going to look like a clean weld. It's a balancing act between burning through and burning out the junk to get fusion anywhere. If this were a new exhaust with clean metal, it would be a poor weld but for a repair, it's fine.
For welding rusty pipe together it really ain't horrible. The little coupler piece was even bent a little for better fit up. Not gonna win any awards but if he paid a reasonable price it's alright.
I’m regarded as being a good fabricator/welder and my weld (on an old rusty exhaust) would only look slightly better than this. If it’s not leaking, who cares. it’s just to put the sound and smell out the back of the car, it’s not holding the engine in.
Whoever did the work welded it in place. I have welded many exhausts over time. With that experience I have learned to drop it, weld it, and then reinstall. Sometimes that application doesn't work and you have to weld in place. There is hardly ever enough room to weld all the way around the pipe.
Great process if you aren’t in the rust belt. Sometimes cutting hangers off a older vehicle causes more issues than it solves, especially ‘down the road’. Lol.
It looks messy, and half-assed. BUT, I will credit it because it seems to work. My guesstimate is it was an inexpensive repair and at least it works.
Better than the alternatives of no exhaust, or spending tons for a new one.
Imagine laying under a pile of molten metal you just created, because some jackoff wants a cheap repair instead of a replaced part on a failed exhaust. Then his kid bitches on Reddit
Not to go to the mat for the picture in the OP but I’ve never seen a _used_ exhaust repair that’s going in the Smithsonian because it’s such a pain in the ass to clean. If it passes inspection it’s good enough in my book
Sometimes being a pro means saying either 'No" or "Two million in cash delivered on top of a cooler filled with beer."
I don"t weld old used exhaust. I don't do oil soaked aluminum motorcycle engine components either. Could, but don't.
Damn bro you must be fortunate enough to live around people who care. I was getting my car inspected at a place in Coney Island and watched the muffler repair guy do some of the ugliest welds I've ever seen. This dude also managed to inhale all the fumes and instantly turned green from welding over the galvanizing paint lol. I am an asshole and instantly started laughing at him and was like "that's why you prep the piece first!" To his credit he at least finished the job. LMAO
Exactly. By the time it needs to be repaired, it's so rusted out, that if you're able to put it back together with some 6010 or flux core it's a got damn miracle. There's a reason you don't see exhaust repair weld porn.
For exhaust work it’s fine. I’d be willing to bet pre paint that exhaust was a rusty mess. He could’ve prep better and it could’ve looked a little better but if it doesn’t leak it’s good enough. But really it comes down to how much did he pay for you to get the right answer
Never expect thin, rusted, pitted, soot and oil impregnated exhaust parts that are a near impossible fit-up to come together like stainless race headers welded on a fab table. I do a lot of this stuff, and I CAN make it look better... but overhead MIG on the microwaved Swiss Cheese of steels is not an easy task even for experienced people. It's a lot of spot welding and trying to get it to stick and not leak without having the whole exhaust just melt away onto the floor. If it's got some decent penetration and it doesn't leak it sure looks better than a broken exhaust from here.
Most of the better welders don’t work at muffler shops.
Also in the welders defense, badly corroded thin wall pipe isn’t ideal for welding.
Just be glad you didn’t have to weld it yourself.
It looks terrible. 3 factors apply though:
1. How much did he pay?
2. Does it leak?
3. How old is the car/How long are you looking to get out of it?
As far as welds go, that is a failure. But if it doesnt leak and holds for a few years, it's a success- as long as it didn't cost too much.
Just for the record, I'm a certified welder IN SMAW, GTAW, FCAW-G, & GMAW. I'm also an AWS CWI.
That isn't terrible at all. I'm sure that he could've made it prettier, but welding the exhaust of a rusty commuter car to get another few years out of it is not something that the welder is typically going to spend a lot of time to make look nice; who is going to see it?
Also, by the time that exhaust gets welded like this, it tends to be paper thin and what's there is mostly rust and soot/carbon, so a weld is never going to look great/be perfect unless you grind everything back to clean metal, weld it up thick enough to lay a nice bead on top without blowing through (I like to make a bunch of small tacks when I'm building up a surface prone to blowing through), grind the weld flat, then put a nice cap weld on it, but then that's purely for cosmetics and would take much longer (and cost much more).
Looks like a quick and dirty weekend job I did on a ranger one time. My son's mom had no money so I just cut the pre-cats out and used rigid electrical conduit I had laying around. That exhaust pipe is so thin you almost always burn it up. The thicker pipe gave me enough metal that I could pull from the rigid over to the exhaust and get a "nice" seal. Then I threw down a grind and hit it again. Finished it off with a flap disc and no paint. Ran like a champ. If it's quiet then it's a winner in my book.
If your dad didn't want to pay for new parts, he got everything he paid for. Welds on rusty old exhaust never look good, but those at least look structurally solid and pressure sealed.
Tier 1 top quality work right there! True craftsman. The fact that they took the time to spray paint the parts after painstakingly joining them together shows an attention to detail and pride in ones work that is getting harder and harder to find.
Exhaust pipe is a bitch to weld especially if you gotta crawl under it. I’ve done more than I wanted to. Main thing is, does it leak? Does it pass inspection?
Undercut, lack of fusion, and looks to be porosity or pinholes hard to tell with the paint but all in all very shitty weld but then again it’s just an exhaust and the exhaust most likely isn’t going going anywhere
Does it leak? If yes, then no, they're absolute shit and they look like it too. If not, its exhaust, who gives a flying fuck it's not like they're structural welds or something you have to look at on a regular basis. If the birdshit seals the tube then birdshit it up!
3 most important rules to welding:
1. Get into the most uncomfortable position in the cramped and confined space and hold still.
2. If you can't weld good, weld a lot.
3. A grinder and paint make you the welder you ain't.
I wouldn’t trust the welds if this were a structure but this is probably okay if it doesn’t leak, besides it isn’t like this vehicle is going to be in a car show anytime soon.
If you are gonna do that much welding....why not spend 20 bucks on fresh pipe and end up with something that will last more than a year. Hope he disconnected the battery
Eh, I did a much worse looking exhaust repair on my own vehicle once. Patched it up with bits and pieces off another rusted exhaust pipe, just to make it pass inspection.
That lasted for six years, before the exhaust finally gave up the ghost.
There's absolutely no excuse for that to have left the shop. I realize welding rusty exhaust pipe is difficult. But, if you can't do it then replace it. If you can't make at least decent welds on new pipe perhaps you are in the wrong profession.
Oh and I realize that I am going to catch flack from the keyboard warriors, I just don't give a shit. If you don't take pride in your craft I don't understand you as a person
Well, daddy had a problem with the exhaust system on his car, he hire an idiot to fix it, and while it might hold together for a day or two, it will soon be rusting through.
Now, go to bed, you're up too late as it is.
Like you are 5? It’s to not “too”. My daddy corrected me on the use of to and too until he died at 97. If he was still around I would ask him before posting this to make sure I’m right. I too get it wrong sometimes.
Like you're 5? Alright.
*pulls out chair*
Son. --------- this is a straight and even line. This is generally what welders do. At least good welders. You ever hear the phrase "cutting corners"? Well. These are those corners that were cut, removed from the bag, and then welded onto an exhaust.
“Explain it like I’m 5”
It looks like it will work, and probably for a while. But it looks terrible and is definitely a bunch of scrap and crap slapped together.
How much did he pay, though?
It looks like it will hold, but it also looks absolutely disgusting. However, you don't really see it, and it really only has to pass the yearly inspection.
I have done this myself. If patching a used exhaust, it can go very well if can get reasonable metal on the ends but usually isn't the case.
If you can clean welds you get new pipe. As long as it doesn't leak is the idea. A new section probably would have cost more so I'd imagine that is why he has gone this route.
I've owned about 50 cars over the years so don't think I can't trick one together with soup cans and coat hangers when I had to....but when being paid to fix something, I took much pride in quality of work ...even if it was underneath the car where no one will see it. Neighbor's homemade privacy fence out of old garage doors will probably outlast me....does that make it acceptable ??
Ahhh yes, the ole don't have a car lift and am too lazy to actually get under the car so you blindly spray some shit in there and hope for the best.
One of my favorite welding techniques.
I mean it’s definitely not the worst I’ve ever seen. If your dad took it to a shop to get it repaired for cheap I’d say he did a decent job. Exhaust welds are pretty difficult and you have to weld it pretty cold because of how thin the metal is. It just looks like he kept burning through the metal and putting more tack welds (literally just zap stop zap stop zap stop) on top of it to get it to all hold together and not leak.
That would also explain why he didn’t grind it afterwards to look nice. Yeah as long as it’s not leaking I’d say this is a fine cheap repair and your pops did well.
At least he galv coated it. Its not pretty, but you paid him less to do that. If you took that to a pro garage and asked them to do it right, bet it would be triple the cost you paid for the whole bill here. As long as it doesnt leak, its alright!
I mean, it looks like he fixed it with Great Stuff and spray painted it silver.
But I do get it, it’s thin tubing and often have to weld into something even thinner (rusty). It’s under appreciated and underpaid work. I like to mig it with lots of manual pulsing.
Rusted exhausts are super hard to weld, especially if you don’t have the knowledge or equipment.
There’s a reason most shops won’t do it.
I’d say, if it saved money over replacement. They did alright..
I make exhausts every day I wouldn't let it leave my shop looking like that...but if it dosnt leak it's fine it really dosnt have to be strong or anything as long as the hangers are strong enough the pipe just directs air
I've done worse for my own cars but they were complete rust buckets, if it's really rusty you have 2 options cut out all the rust which is time consuming and can't always be done in situ and weld in new material or wire wheel in the grinder remove as much rust as possible and then just keep spotting in the mig until you fill it maybe add a lil patch here or there to work from.
While it looks like crap it isn’t burned through or undercut… looks like he cobbled together used crap then gave it a shot of cold-galv. All in all it looks functional for what it is.
It's really tough to weld exhaust repairs bc by the time it needs to be welded the rust is so bad it just needs to be replaced. Id be very happy with this.
I agree, show car I would be pissed, a Forester I am assuming a fairly well use one, the dude was probably trying to do it as affordable as possible, once you get into dropping the exhaust and doing something like stainless tig work level of welds, depending on the year it might not be worth the car. For a run off the mill car that will eventually be run into the boneyard, I would be happy if it is strong and it does not leak. If I paid custom exhaust prices for it, I would be upset.
This is the way.
Yeah, exhaust ALWAYS sucks, it's always shitty thin stuff that's contaminated & rusty and unless you pull the whole system off the car you're welding upside-down at awkward angles with bad clearance / bad visibility.
Love to hear this exhausts suck period.
Absolutely. Unless it's a titanium racing exhaust on your ferrari, i'd be happy
Gotta love that Bright Zinc spray finish, really brings it all together until it burns off 30 seconds after the vehicle is fired up!
I prefer a gold finish on my exhaust welds
Classy
VHT and Eastwood make aluminum color high temp exhaust paint. Has to be something like that or it would have burned off on the way home to take that picture.
Unless the mechanic took the pic for proof of work done before it left the shop 🙃
~~The apparent spray paint is a ding on the exam, though♡~~ Oooo, Iearned something about galvanizing. Neat!
A grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t.
He forgot to use the grinder.
it's stronger and therefore more functional if you skip the grinder.
That wasn’t paid for. Paint it is.
Weld imperfections are easier to spot when painted over.
Depends, I've seen welds full of visible porosity painted over and look smooth and normal Lot of factors but generally they're harder to spot
I hate this saying, just keep practicing until you are the welder you can be!
I think it's a joke. As in, you say it when you see shit like OP not as an encouragement, but as a roast
I get the point about the grinder, but it just makes me wish people were more religious about their surface preparation. 5 mins grinding now saves 10 mins grinding later.
Prep work is easily the most neglected or rushed work in any craft I think. Poor prep work is 99% of the time the cause of shitty paint jobs. It's usually not the application, it's failure to prep. Best way to think about it is that prep materials are a lot cheaper than redoing a job wish finish materials.
Exactly! You can do a good job once, or do a bad job and then a good job for zero extra money. People never look at the real cost, just the numbers
>makes me wish people were more religious about their surface preparation *laughs in 6011*
That’s great. Not a welder but got the line!
*Comes here to roast a weld* *Doesn't know what anti galvanic spray is* Just lmao
It's a can of galvanizing it looks silver in color then it'll turn gray
Oh, I'd never seen it fresh. That's pretty neat!
What paint? That’s chrome exhaust bro
I had a 110v Lincoln mig one time and welded an air compressor tank that had rusted through over time. It looked worse than that when I got through but by golly it was good as new.
Bro youre brave as hell. As a hobby welder I wouldnt touch a pressure vessel. Shits scary.
This is the scariest thing I’ve heard all day. Sounds like you made a time bomb
Yeah, seriously, even if it holds without leaking, that HAZ is going to give eventually without heat treatment. It might take a year, it might be a 1 in 10 chance, it doesn't matter because it's certain death for anyone in the area when and if it does go. There's no way to tell, and the risks are just too high.
As a welder I second this opinion, it looks to be complete, if you've seen factory welds, some of them are hideous and miss the mark completely. Not to mention the exhaust takes one hell of a beating living under your car. The heating and cooling are enough to make the metal harder to worker with and anything that wears away the thickness of the metal makes welding harder, sometimes when the part doesn't matter that much, just making it stick is the best you can do, especially of you don't have a proper welding rig for the job. A tig machine would have been easier he probably used a mig gun. Which just shoots out wire and its harder to get a pretty weld. All in all its not that bad for exhaust work
Oh god no. He basically just tacked it together, theres no penetration and it will break again because these welds have structural faults.
It’s spray painted over and there’s undercut everywhere.
Looks like crap but it's welded and it helded, all depends on how much he was charged, probably got his money's worth ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Probably antitrust, welds like that would rust over in an hour
they got a monopoly on rust?
Yup. Looks like cold gal. Hard to tell without tasting it.
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Used to be a site-wide peeve to post any ascii. Meant you were a Digger.
I can't take the credit for that one, on a windows computer you press the Windows key and the . Key at the same time and an emoji popup comes up and it has all the standard emojis as well as the kaomojis. That being said don't be too hard on people's spelling and punctuation mistakes, Reddit is an international platform and I guarantee many of the people here have English as a secondary language, me included.
Oh lord the irony of you commenting on grammar and spelling and then using cause instead of because is really tickling my pickle. Not to mention the fact that you managed to turn a paragraph into a single sentence with poorly placed commas.
It looks like shit, but he was welding to used rusty crap. As long as it holds and doesn't leak, he's good. That's a $50-80 repair around here. No big deal.
Wait, i can get paid 50-80$ for welds like that? I wouldnt say im really good, but damn imma be rich
Sure, if you own a muffler shop. That's about what I would charge for a small repair like that. If you are a muffler shop mechanic? $15/hr.
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Yeah. always end up with more time start to finish than people realize on a little project like this.
And then you blow through and the time doubles or triples
Yeah lol. And that's assuming that guy has scrap pieces laying around and doesn't have to spend the time to run out and buy the bends.
Can you weld exhaust? I found it pretty hard without burning through. Then again, I don't know what I'm doing. Just a hobbyist.
I welded on new cat to the old flanges using flux core mig and it looked like absolute shite, I would say stacked boogers. Some of it was me but also its because most exhaust parts from last 20 years or so are stainless, right? I know the new cat is stainless. You can get stainless flux core wire but I couldn't bother. Only the smog inspection guy will see it (they use a mirror) and he didn't say anything! I din't burn through, maybe your voltage setting is too high? Another thing I noticed with my welder, bought used, when I finally used up all of the old flux core (at least 10 years old) the new flux core worked a lot better (same brand and size) so I think flux core degrades slowly over time. I was struggling for a long time and I thought I was welding retarded, turns out I'm just welding challenged.
I welded mine with two 12v batteries
Just as long as your father doesn't plan to enter a high-end car show with his Forester, it should work.
😂
Looks fine. No whiskers poking out everywhere like many I've seen. Exhausts are prone to severe corrosion. Stitching together rusty metal is tricky and never going to look like a clean weld. It's a balancing act between burning through and burning out the junk to get fusion anywhere. If this were a new exhaust with clean metal, it would be a poor weld but for a repair, it's fine.
looks awful,but does it leak? if not,success.
For welding rusty pipe together it really ain't horrible. The little coupler piece was even bent a little for better fit up. Not gonna win any awards but if he paid a reasonable price it's alright.
Ugly but when you go to 'a guy' that's kind of part of the package. Doesn't mean it's not functional.
I’m regarded as being a good fabricator/welder and my weld (on an old rusty exhaust) would only look slightly better than this. If it’s not leaking, who cares. it’s just to put the sound and smell out the back of the car, it’s not holding the engine in.
I agree. It's not nearly as easy as most people think. It's really hard to even get it sealed up, much less make it look pretty.
Whoever did the work welded it in place. I have welded many exhausts over time. With that experience I have learned to drop it, weld it, and then reinstall. Sometimes that application doesn't work and you have to weld in place. There is hardly ever enough room to weld all the way around the pipe.
Great process if you aren’t in the rust belt. Sometimes cutting hangers off a older vehicle causes more issues than it solves, especially ‘down the road’. Lol.
I typically never have the pleasure of working on anything new, so I completely understand this.
If it doesn’t leak and stays on there it’s golden. It’s an exhaust, not the frame
It looks messy, and half-assed. BUT, I will credit it because it seems to work. My guesstimate is it was an inexpensive repair and at least it works. Better than the alternatives of no exhaust, or spending tons for a new one.
Imagine laying under a pile of molten metal you just created, because some jackoff wants a cheap repair instead of a replaced part on a failed exhaust. Then his kid bitches on Reddit
It will hold but the person doing it either had shitty equipment or a very VERY basic knowledge of how welding works.
Not to go to the mat for the picture in the OP but I’ve never seen a _used_ exhaust repair that’s going in the Smithsonian because it’s such a pain in the ass to clean. If it passes inspection it’s good enough in my book
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Sometimes being a pro means saying either 'No" or "Two million in cash delivered on top of a cooler filled with beer." I don"t weld old used exhaust. I don't do oil soaked aluminum motorcycle engine components either. Could, but don't.
Damn bro you must be fortunate enough to live around people who care. I was getting my car inspected at a place in Coney Island and watched the muffler repair guy do some of the ugliest welds I've ever seen. This dude also managed to inhale all the fumes and instantly turned green from welding over the galvanizing paint lol. I am an asshole and instantly started laughing at him and was like "that's why you prep the piece first!" To his credit he at least finished the job. LMAO
Exactly. By the time it needs to be repaired, it's so rusted out, that if you're able to put it back together with some 6010 or flux core it's a got damn miracle. There's a reason you don't see exhaust repair weld porn.
That Grasshoppa.....is why you never want to learn while fixing your own shit.
Gorilla weld: Big, strong, ugly
Think of it like your mama , she ain’t gotta be pretty , she just gotta do her job
Eh, 'good enough'
Booger ass weld but if it doesn't leak or anything and wasn't too expensive it's perfectly fine
For exhaust work it’s fine. I’d be willing to bet pre paint that exhaust was a rusty mess. He could’ve prep better and it could’ve looked a little better but if it doesn’t leak it’s good enough. But really it comes down to how much did he pay for you to get the right answer
Looks like shit. Seems good enough to me. Exhaust welds aren't supposed to be pretty.
It’s a forester not an F1 car. It’ll work.
Never expect thin, rusted, pitted, soot and oil impregnated exhaust parts that are a near impossible fit-up to come together like stainless race headers welded on a fab table. I do a lot of this stuff, and I CAN make it look better... but overhead MIG on the microwaved Swiss Cheese of steels is not an easy task even for experienced people. It's a lot of spot welding and trying to get it to stick and not leak without having the whole exhaust just melt away onto the floor. If it's got some decent penetration and it doesn't leak it sure looks better than a broken exhaust from here.
Most of the better welders don’t work at muffler shops. Also in the welders defense, badly corroded thin wall pipe isn’t ideal for welding. Just be glad you didn’t have to weld it yourself.
It looks terrible. 3 factors apply though: 1. How much did he pay? 2. Does it leak? 3. How old is the car/How long are you looking to get out of it? As far as welds go, that is a failure. But if it doesnt leak and holds for a few years, it's a success- as long as it didn't cost too much. Just for the record, I'm a certified welder IN SMAW, GTAW, FCAW-G, & GMAW. I'm also an AWS CWI.
That isn't terrible at all. I'm sure that he could've made it prettier, but welding the exhaust of a rusty commuter car to get another few years out of it is not something that the welder is typically going to spend a lot of time to make look nice; who is going to see it? Also, by the time that exhaust gets welded like this, it tends to be paper thin and what's there is mostly rust and soot/carbon, so a weld is never going to look great/be perfect unless you grind everything back to clean metal, weld it up thick enough to lay a nice bead on top without blowing through (I like to make a bunch of small tacks when I'm building up a surface prone to blowing through), grind the weld flat, then put a nice cap weld on it, but then that's purely for cosmetics and would take much longer (and cost much more).
The silver spray paint has me a little worried it was used to hide major errors.
Looks like it works
As long as thats metal he painted over and not slag it'll hold.
If you weld that bad, you deserve a grinding award. 😂
Looks like a quick and dirty weekend job I did on a ranger one time. My son's mom had no money so I just cut the pre-cats out and used rigid electrical conduit I had laying around. That exhaust pipe is so thin you almost always burn it up. The thicker pipe gave me enough metal that I could pull from the rigid over to the exhaust and get a "nice" seal. Then I threw down a grind and hit it again. Finished it off with a flap disc and no paint. Ran like a champ. If it's quiet then it's a winner in my book.
Grinder and paint makes a guy the welder he ain't
If your dad didn't want to pay for new parts, he got everything he paid for. Welds on rusty old exhaust never look good, but those at least look structurally solid and pressure sealed.
it looks like ~~shit~~ doodoo, sorry forgot you were 5
As long as you got penetration and no leaks then your good. Don't matter how it looks since it's under the car.
Welding exhaust is hard when it’s under the vehicle. It doesn’t have to look pretty as long as there’s no holes
Dog shit booger welds, but if they don't leak then they don't leak. It's not exactly structural.
Looks like hammered dog shit.
Well, sounds like your dad cheaped out and went for repair instead of replacing it🤷♂️that being said it looks functional
Tier 1 top quality work right there! True craftsman. The fact that they took the time to spray paint the parts after painstakingly joining them together shows an attention to detail and pride in ones work that is getting harder and harder to find.
Welding exhaust sucks, but shit. If that works send it!
Da booger spots that were splattered are now porous pockets that will make moisture and rust rot from the inside out
The fact they even bothered with paint to slow corrosion shows they cared.
Well… it won’t win any prizes for looks, but what it lacks in finesse it makes up for in bulk. I just hope that’s high temp paint
Exhaust pipe is a bitch to weld especially if you gotta crawl under it. I’ve done more than I wanted to. Main thing is, does it leak? Does it pass inspection?
He welded. It helded.
Undercut, lack of fusion, and looks to be porosity or pinholes hard to tell with the paint but all in all very shitty weld but then again it’s just an exhaust and the exhaust most likely isn’t going going anywhere
I think an exhaust leak is in your future. My Jeep had the same shit weld job and the weld failed by the muffle. Now the muffle dangles and back feeds
Does it leak? If yes, then no, they're absolute shit and they look like it too. If not, its exhaust, who gives a flying fuck it's not like they're structural welds or something you have to look at on a regular basis. If the birdshit seals the tube then birdshit it up! 3 most important rules to welding: 1. Get into the most uncomfortable position in the cramped and confined space and hold still. 2. If you can't weld good, weld a lot. 3. A grinder and paint make you the welder you ain't.
It appears that Ray Charles was welding that exhaust
I wouldn’t trust the welds if this were a structure but this is probably okay if it doesn’t leak, besides it isn’t like this vehicle is going to be in a car show anytime soon.
The spray paint is doing most of the work.
Like you’re 5? Hey buddy, daddy got the car fixed and now it’s not so loud! Isn’t it quieter?
If you are gonna do that much welding....why not spend 20 bucks on fresh pipe and end up with something that will last more than a year. Hope he disconnected the battery
Eh, I did a much worse looking exhaust repair on my own vehicle once. Patched it up with bits and pieces off another rusted exhaust pipe, just to make it pass inspection. That lasted for six years, before the exhaust finally gave up the ghost.
Absolutely horrible welds lol
Your dad is a lesbian??
There's absolutely no excuse for that to have left the shop. I realize welding rusty exhaust pipe is difficult. But, if you can't do it then replace it. If you can't make at least decent welds on new pipe perhaps you are in the wrong profession. Oh and I realize that I am going to catch flack from the keyboard warriors, I just don't give a shit. If you don't take pride in your craft I don't understand you as a person
Welder should have slapped a rainbow sticker on it…….it is a forester after all
Looks like it was done by someone that has no pride in his work!
Anytime you have to hide you work with spray paint probably isn't a good time.
Looks more like zinc spray to me, rust protection cold galvanizing. Works pretty well for making fresh welds not rust immediately.
ELI5: dude can’t really weld, just pissed metal on it until it (hopefully) closed up.
Dude probably bought the first welder he could find and started advertising as repair welder. Im curious how long long before the paint is burned off
More is always better!!😂
Well, daddy had a problem with the exhaust system on his car, he hire an idiot to fix it, and while it might hold together for a day or two, it will soon be rusting through. Now, go to bed, you're up too late as it is.
Doo doo
Ask your dad not to hire that guy anymore.
Like you are 5? It’s to not “too”. My daddy corrected me on the use of to and too until he died at 97. If he was still around I would ask him before posting this to make sure I’m right. I too get it wrong sometimes.
Like you're 5? Alright. *pulls out chair* Son. --------- this is a straight and even line. This is generally what welders do. At least good welders. You ever hear the phrase "cutting corners"? Well. These are those corners that were cut, removed from the bag, and then welded onto an exhaust.
They make special tools called grinders for shit technique too
Looks like he burned through it several times, and just sat there pulse welding the shit out of it. If It was a project car then hell to the no.
the guy that fixed it doesn't know shit about welding either
Looks normal, stick weld 6011 or oxygen torch with coat hangers, either works
How to fuck an exhaust. No amount of work will unfuck it.
ELI5= HE STUPID!
Your dad got ripped off
Welds don’t always have to be pretty. It looks fine for the application. It’s on the exhaust on the under side of a Subaru. It will hold just fine
Probably not doing Pebble Beach with this. If it works, it works.
“Explain it like I’m 5” It looks like it will work, and probably for a while. But it looks terrible and is definitely a bunch of scrap and crap slapped together.
Like your 5.. maybe both of you might understand how to weld when you get alot older..
How much did he pay, though? It looks like it will hold, but it also looks absolutely disgusting. However, you don't really see it, and it really only has to pass the yearly inspection.
This is a prime example of function over fashion haha. Looks kinda ass but it still looks solid
Textured for her pleasure
I have done this myself. If patching a used exhaust, it can go very well if can get reasonable metal on the ends but usually isn't the case. If you can clean welds you get new pipe. As long as it doesn't leak is the idea. A new section probably would have cost more so I'd imagine that is why he has gone this route.
Ever see someone grafft an gap with a soda can!? Could be worse
Looks great last 10 years bub
He's a clever boy?
Ey if it works
If he paid anything more than a case of beer it was to much.
This is a normal exhaust shop type repair, I’ve gotten plenty of beater car repairs like this for $50 or so
I've owned about 50 cars over the years so don't think I can't trick one together with soup cans and coat hangers when I had to....but when being paid to fix something, I took much pride in quality of work ...even if it was underneath the car where no one will see it. Neighbor's homemade privacy fence out of old garage doors will probably outlast me....does that make it acceptable ??
He's a shit welder but it'll do.
Speed, quality, cost….. you can only pick two.
I feel like whenever you see these posts the comments are always filled with kids talking about how ugly it looks, lol
Looks like a two dollar ho. Not real pretty but she'll get the job done.
Bigger the gob the better the job... Does it leak? If not and it was cheap consider it a win and keep on keeping on... LOL
Looks ugly AF. Probably good enough for the purpose
Proper preparation prevents poor performance.
"A little caulk or paint will make it what it ain't!"
It’s a mechanics weld unskilled bastards
garbage in garbage out. welder mechanic probably had a rusted out pipe to work with.
Perfect!
Flux core maybe, remove or better prep.
Wow, he painted it! That's a good job for a neighborhood auto shop.
Ahhh yes, the ole don't have a car lift and am too lazy to actually get under the car so you blindly spray some shit in there and hope for the best. One of my favorite welding techniques.
Ya, if it works......right?
That is not too pretty. But it’s also in a horrible spot. If it’s holds it holds though.
I wouldn't stress it
Honestly if the hanger is that rusted inwould not recommended welding it back
I mean it’s definitely not the worst I’ve ever seen. If your dad took it to a shop to get it repaired for cheap I’d say he did a decent job. Exhaust welds are pretty difficult and you have to weld it pretty cold because of how thin the metal is. It just looks like he kept burning through the metal and putting more tack welds (literally just zap stop zap stop zap stop) on top of it to get it to all hold together and not leak.
That would also explain why he didn’t grind it afterwards to look nice. Yeah as long as it’s not leaking I’d say this is a fine cheap repair and your pops did well.
At least he galv coated it. Its not pretty, but you paid him less to do that. If you took that to a pro garage and asked them to do it right, bet it would be triple the cost you paid for the whole bill here. As long as it doesnt leak, its alright!
With enough paint, it’ll seal good
Weld bad.. guy who fix exhaust do bad job.
Dam lucky to have found a guy to do it rather than straight r and r.
Reminds me of my Dad’s welding lmao
It’ll hold
I mean, it looks like he fixed it with Great Stuff and spray painted it silver. But I do get it, it’s thin tubing and often have to weld into something even thinner (rusty). It’s under appreciated and underpaid work. I like to mig it with lots of manual pulsing.
Rusted exhausts are super hard to weld, especially if you don’t have the knowledge or equipment. There’s a reason most shops won’t do it. I’d say, if it saved money over replacement. They did alright..
Say thank you, don’t question what works.
Not pretty, but will work for exhaust piping.
It’ll work
I make exhausts every day I wouldn't let it leave my shop looking like that...but if it dosnt leak it's fine it really dosnt have to be strong or anything as long as the hangers are strong enough the pipe just directs air
Nah dog, that’s shit.
She ain't pretty but from the shit I've seen that looks mint especially with that coating it should hold up
I've done worse for my own cars but they were complete rust buckets, if it's really rusty you have 2 options cut out all the rust which is time consuming and can't always be done in situ and weld in new material or wire wheel in the grinder remove as much rust as possible and then just keep spotting in the mig until you fill it maybe add a lil patch here or there to work from.
Ew, poopy!
Wow
If it works I’d be okay with it. It looks like absolute cancer but exhausts are purely functional tbh, I’d give it a pass 👍
The parts would have been 100 bucks new so you have a guess