Exhausted

[idiotboy]

Hi all

 

Well the back box on the foxy potato Allegro's exhaust has finally given up the ghost so down I trundled to the local exhaust place to get it replaced. I was stunned into silience when after an hour of calling round no such exhaust can be found.

 

This millstone of motoring history is about to be floored by a humble exhaust.

 

The Allegro club can sort you a Stainless one for £300 but that's quite expensive and represtents quite a chunk of the car's value. It also seems a bit crazy to replace a complete system all for one busted back box (the rest of the system is sound), so in the grand tradition of the autoshitist, I'm going to have to bodge it.

 

A rummage in my garage found a footlong Cherry bomb silencer so I'm going to have to fit this in place of the rotten old back box. I don't have a welder so I'm going to have to use the cut, paste and clamp method of fitting. Hopefully I can get it sorted by Shitefest otherwise I'll not get down there.

 

Does anyone on here have any experience of these silencers and are they likely to make my 1500 Aggro sound like a chavbus?

[dollywobbler]

Can BL Transverse not locate one?

[idiotboy]

Can BL Transverse not locate one?

 

Doesn't seem like it.

[Rocket88]

Earlparts on 01773 719504 appear to have them

[idiotboy]

Earlparts on 01773 719504 appear to have them

 

Yes for £207 !!!!

 

For that I might as well stump up £80 more for a full stainless system.

[DSdriver]

If the Cherry Bomb is too noisy I would go for the "fit and forget" stainless system otherwise in six months time the front box will go and you'll be back to square one.

[cobblers]

Isn't there anywhere local that can weld any old similar sized mild steel box in place? It's a pretty simple job really, probably take someone a couple of hours at most if they have a ramp, but I'm not sure what type of place you'd want to go to for the job doing - most "Custom Exhaust" places would want make a $$$$tainle$$$$ system, and most shit-fit type places just want to fit something off the shelf, which as you already know isn't a lot less money.

 

You can buy replacement "clamp on" boxes off eBay, but they are the usual straight through stainless steel ones, so even the massive ones don't silence very well (I have two big ones on my van and it sounds like a bloody motocross bike )

Cherry bombs are a similar design, and as such the car won't really be a lot quieter with the cherry bomb on than it would be without a box in place at all.

 

Personally I'd see if a friendly motor factors will let you have a nosy round their exhaust stock, or even try a scrapyard to find something similar off a production car, and then try and find someone who'll weld it you in. Failing that you can join stuff with clamps, sleeves and gobbo but it never seals or lasts very well, and it's a lot more work than butting the pipes up and squirting a mig at it for 45 seconds.

[RobT]

If it's a keeper, and if you've got the money, I'd go for stainless. I'm thinking of doing the same on the Metro once I can afford it.

 

In the meantime, you might be lucky with some NOS on ebay. Exhausts on old stuff can be a pain in the butt to get right!

[Louise2cv]

What are cherry bombs like for longevity? Any independant old-school exhaust shops around that might be able to knock something up? Knowing nothing about such things do you not just need something with similar sized components to do the job?

 

Otherwise buy the stainless one. Then if/when you come to sell whack that cost on top of your asking price, make sure to times it by 2 when detailing in the advert the "£££'s spent" on the car and follow it up with a quote from howmanyleft.com. Bung it on ebay with two upsidedown pictures of it squeezed into a garage, put "barn find lol" in the listing and bobs your uncle... laughing all the way to the bank.

[Rocket88]

If it's an "A" series Allegro, will a Mini one do the job?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The pukka BL exhaust is a one-piece item from front to back and used to cost about £50 for the whole thing, hence the lack of a back box supplier. However theres absolutley nothing wrong with cobbling on a cherry bomb or whatever other silencer is knocking about if you can make a decent fist of it.

[sporty-shite]

There's a bloke in Leeds who has a barn full of NOS exhausts. He sells on ebay as glynnexs (I think) and I seem to remember his email is [email protected], but I could be wrong, as that's from memory. I bought one off him for the Celica a few years ago.

 

here you go

[idiotboy]

The pukka BL exhaust is a one-piece item from front to back and used to cost about £50 for the whole thing, hence the lack of a back box supplier. However theres absolutley nothing wrong with cobbling on a cherry bomb or whatever other silencer is knocking about if you can make a decent fist of it.

 

Yes I was under it yesterday greasing my front ball joints and I couldn't see a join for the back box so it is a one piece system. As the rest of it is fine it seems a shame to bin it all and a tad wasteful. I got the "bomb" at the NEC in 2009 for £20 and have totally failed to fit it to anything I own as yet. I don't have the cash spare to spunk on a Stainless steel system and I've no idea how long this Aggro will be in the fleet for, so maybe fitting this bit of garage clutter will get me out of trouble for a while. The pipe that exits the box has practically broken off and this pipe has the support bracket attached to it. so all I'd need to do is cut the pipe at the front of the box, fit the bomb and clamp it, shorten up the rear pipe and clamp it and hopefully jobs a good 'un.

 

What could possibly go wrong eh?

[idiotboy]

If it's an "A" series Allegro, will a Mini one do the job?

 

Nope its got the Maxi 'boat anchor' engine.

[Albert Ross]

Rimmers?

[idiotboy]

Rimmers?

 

I beg your pardon?! LOL How rude.

[dollywobbler]

I don't think Rimmer Brothers do any Aggro stuff.

 

Just go for the stainless system. If you need the money, I'll buy your Ami for £300. Sorted.

[Guest]

Rimmers?

 

I beg your pardon?! LOL How rude.

 

Tad harsh i thought! They're only trying to help.

 

There's a place in Hove who buy/bought NOS guff by the pallet load! I mean loads. Like they could end up with 57 left hand stalks for a Mk3 Clackercasternet Obscura. Try googling Hove/Portslade/Brighton area. Damn can't think of their name.

 

Where are you as would take me 10 mins to weld up the C/bomb in the absence of a proper jobbie.

 

EDIT Speedyspares.co.uk socautoparts.co.uk

[M'coli]

I think it will be fine, and sound excellent, but not too loud.

[idiotboy]

Rimmers?

 

I beg your pardon?! LOL How rude.

 

Tad harsh i thought! They're only trying to help.

 

There's a place in Hove who buy/bought NOS guff by the pallet load! I mean loads. Like they could end up with 57 left hand stalks for a Mk3 Clackercasternet Obscura. Try googling Hove/Portslade/Brighton area. Damn can't think of their name.

 

Where are you as would take me 10 mins to weld up the C/bomb in the absence of a proper jobbie.

 

EDIT Speedyspares.co.uk socautoparts.co.uk

 

I'm a mile from Junction 17 M25. I'm going to get my measuring tape out tonight to check diamensions etc.

[idiotboy]

Well the Agro is finally sorted on the exhaust front for the time being.

 

Much work, swearing, cuts and bruises has resulted in a fairly robust lash up and the cherry bomb is now in place. It gives the Agro a nice throaty burble not overly chav but a nice resonance.

 

Highlights of the exercise where realising that one wrong move with the angle grinder could see me cutting a hole in the petrol tank or servering the nearside Hydrogas line, followed by the serious oh shite moment when it was realised that the diameter of the exhaust pipe pre box wasn't the same as the exit, leading to imaginative fudgery to get a good seal on the bomb.

 

I may also have been a bit of a tart and fitted a chome exhaust trim to fool the girlfriend that it was a new exhaust and not the tatty old bit of pipe reused.

 

Other jobs completed this weekend :

 

The replacement of the other non working front fog light with a better 2nd hand example off a rover SD1. The reason for the nonfuctioning light became apparent when on removal it was found that behind the foglight glass was precious little foglight i.e the top quarter of the unit. The rest it seems had dissoved into rusty flakes.

 

Tracking down the windscreen seal leak. Found that this was due to a rust hole under the rubber on the bottom corner. I've managed to seal this for now pending a decision on when we can pull the screen out to effect a more permanent repair.

 

Getting a second opinion on the rust in the wheel arch areas, and making temporary repairs to stop the rust getting any worse by properly sealing said areas from the wet.

 

Investigation into fitting the rev counter into the blank, in the instrument cluster. On investigation it seems that the rev counter must be from a MK3 Allegro as the cluster housing is not deep enough to accomodate it. Nor does the Circuit board accomodate it. Arsehats. Does anyone know if the cluster off a MK3 can be made to fit a MK2 agro. I guess only a serious BL Nerd would know.

 

Finally I've had to order up a new set of tyres as a proper look at these showed that the only one worth keeping was the spare, and that the front offside one is starting to lose tread (not good).