Grrr ... Wrong Exhaust ...

[Lead Foot]

I was patiently awaiting my Magnaflow for the past few weeks due to "backorder" ... I got home yesterday to find a big ole package at my door! Man I was excited until I noticed the sticker on the outside stated #15770 - '03 GM Hummer, not #15710 - '00-'02 Lincoln LS as ordered. So I checked the invoice and it was correct (LS); opened the box to verify. "Hello, shipping dept.? Wake up please!!" I called Magnaflow since it was drop shipped from them and a RMA was set-up for FedEx Ground. So now I still continue to wait, both for pick-up and re-delivery.

[CGGorman]

Bummer.























(Get it? Hummer....Bummer....I crack myself up!)

[lskoncepts]

Yeah that does suck but it's well worth the wait!

[Lead Foot]

Originally Posted by CGGorman

Bummer.

(Get it? Hummer....Bummer....I crack myself up!)

[Lead Foot]

Originally Posted by lskoncepts

Yeah that does suck but it's well worth the wait!

Yeah, probably should have bought it through you. Hey Ken, do you have the eyebrows ready to ship if I order today? Also, the McLaren "lower" grille - does that fit my front (see pic below)? Thanks!

[lskoncepts]

Originally Posted by Lead Foot

Yeah, probably should have bought it through you. Hey Ken, do you have the eyebrows ready to ship if I order today? Also, the McLaren "lower" grille - does that fit my front (see pic below)? Thanks!

I have numerous eyebrows ready to be shipped. As for the lower McLaren grille it won't fit the regular front bumper only the LSE. It isn't long enough for the regular bumper.

BTW, the LS is looking HOT!

[CGGorman]

If you are handy, you can make one yourself. I did.

[lskoncepts]

Originally Posted by CGGorman

If you are handy, you can make one yourself. I did.

Yeah, I need you to make me 100 of those like you did before!

[Lead Foot]

Originally Posted by CGGorman

If you are handy, you can make one yourself. I did.

No problem ... where can I get the material?

[CGGorman]

Here's the "instructions" I put together for another forum...

Let's see if I can lay out the steps I went through to make the grill...
First I got the car in the garage and jacked up the front so it was at a comfortable working height while sitting on my creeper. (Make sure you use stands and set the parking brake or chock the rear tires before beginning any work.)
Take several vertical measurements along the length of the opening you want to cover and also measure the width.
I got a scrap of 1/8" paneling ('cause it was handier than cardboard for me) big enough to cover the whole opening and layed out the measurements with a framing square and straight edge. Then I cut out the rectangle and held it up to the opening to determine fit. That's the point at which I realized the openign is not a rectangle. The pattern I cut was too "small" at both ends to work with.
I grabbed a flexible 36" straight edge and, sure enough, the top and bottom edges of the opening aren't "flat".
I cut another pattern allowing about 1/4" extra over the measurements I'd taken earlier. After a few trial fitments and subsequent alterations to the pattern, I came up with something I considered usable.
BE CAREFUL! Make SURE your pattern fits the way you want it. You only have enough material to make ONE grill.
Once I had the pattern tweaked, I taped it to the PVC sheet to prevent it from moving while I carefully traced an outline with a Sharpie (permanent) marker.
After removing the tape and pattern from the PVC, I started cutting out my new grill-in-the-rough. I used a small circular trim-saw, but a power jigsaw, sawzall, or even a hand saw can handle that job. Take your time and leave some of the line to allow for fine-tuning.
At this point, you're basically repeating the same steps that you went through to fit the patter, however, now it "counts". Fit, trim, fit, trim.... I was using an angle grinder (again, because it was handy) to tweak the fitment.
Once I had all the "cuts" right, I moved on to the details. Until now, the PVC symmetrical, but I knew I wanted to do some work on the "front" side only. One side of the sheet is smoother than the other. The smooth side is the one I chose for the front. After choosing, I ground the ends to a smooth radius and chamfered all ~900 holes. THAT took a while and I had to take several breaks to keep my hand from balling up into a claw.
At this point, I opted to sand the whole sheet with 220 grit sandpaper. You may want to waint until after bending (if you decide to go that route).
Preparing to bend the ends, I grabbed some more scrap wood (4 pieces, 5/16" thick and two short lengths of 2x2.) and laid the thin pieces under the corners of the face-down sheet. I'm working on a bench at this point, BTW. I've got the thin pices of wood laid at ~45* angles to the sheet so that they only contact ~3/4" of the plastic. I used a heat gun (though a torch used CAREFULLY would also work) to warm up the sheet until it bacame pliable. Be carefull not to over heat the plastic as it likes to shrink slightly and eventually blister. Once it was pliable enough, I used the 2x2's as weight to hold the center (unsupported) section of the ends down until the material cooled. I misted some water on it to speed the process. trial fit the part again and, if necessary (in my case it wasn't), reheat and adjust the bend. Be creative with your support pieces. Nearly anything with a higher melting point than the PVC will work. Heck, you could even make forming jigs based on the actual shape of the ribs if you wanted. It's all up to YOU!
I would not worry about the long bend across the width of the bumper. The sheet is PLENTY flexible to make a radius that large and getting the plastic to hold such a long bend without flatspotting or over-bending is more work than I felt profitable.
At this point your new grill should fit well with only slight pressure to keep the ends pressed to the bumper!
Congratulations! Fabrication isn't so tough, is it?
Now we need to paint...
I sanded earlier in the process. If you haven't, you should do so now. The sanded finish gives the paint something to grab onto. Once sanded, I wiped the whole sheet off with degreaser/dewaxer from PPG. Alcohol will also work. This is to prevent any oils, etc. from preventing the paint from sticking. Be carefull at this point of handling the plastic as the oil in your skin can cause "fisheyes" or even whole fingerprints to show though the paint.
Select a well-ventilated, yet dust-free, space to paint. If available, blow off the sheet and bench with non-oily compressed air. Prime the sheet in four coats. One coat in each of the four compass directions in order to get all sides of the hole interiors. By the time you have all four coats on, the face of the grill will have four full coats of primer. Plenty! Let the primer dry and inspect your work. If necessary, wet-sand with 500-1000 grit paper and rinse well. Blow off again. and repeat the above painting steps with you finish of choice. I used Krylon semi-flat black. I opted for eight coats (repeat the compass-thing twice) since the grill will see a lot of abuse.
Once the paint has been allowed to dry for at LEAST half an hour, attach to the bumper with zip-ties. I opted to spray them while on the car.
You can see in the pictures, I also elected to paint the whole inset area of the bumper. If you want to do this, use the same prep/paint guidelines above except you'll have to carefully mask off, preferably with "clean-release" masking tape (I like the 3M Scotch's "blue" tape), the areas of the bumper you don't want painted. Instead of 220 grit paper, I used green Scotch-Brite to scuff the bumper. In addition to the tape, you should also drape/tape a clean poly drop cloth over the car/bumper to prevent any overspray damage. I keep a roll of 10x10 perforated drop cloth handy for stuff just like this. It's like $5 for a 100' roll.
Pull off all your mask/tarp. Stand back and admire your work.
Have a beer and wash your hands.

For those of you who might like to pursue this further, here are some contacts...
The one I used:
Ametco, http://www.ametco.com/perfplastic/index.html (they charged me $215 for a sheered 4'x 8' sheet)
McMaster-Carr, http://www.mcmaster.com/param/asp/ps...cloth;158=6216 (Ametco is their source)
McMaster also has other styles of perforated materials:
Hexagon aluminum. http://www.mcmaster.com/asp/DisplCtl...lip&ToolsetAct=#
Oval, Diamond, Square, Woven, Etc. (bottom of the page) http://www.mcmaster.com/asp/DisplCtl...lip&ToolsetAct=

[Lead Foot]

I will never have a company drop-ship an item again. I've been on and off the phone every day this week between Arrow Speed Warehouse and Magnaflow and constantly get the runaround. Let's put it this way:

Arrow sold me the exhaust ... they didn't have it in stock so sent a PO to Magnaflow to ship direct ... Magnaflow fudged the order and sent the wrong item ... Arrow tells me everything on their end is done, quite rudely I might add ... Magnaflow tells me they are awaiting a PO from Arrow to ship the replacement, and have been waiting since Monday when I received the RMA to return the wrong item ... as of today (Friday) I still have no answer ... meanwhile, I've been bounced around between 3 people at Arrow, and 2 at Magnaflow ... no one seems to know what to do ... WTF is the deal?!!

I understand there is "red-tape" to spool through, but I'm out $650+ and still have no product or even a glimpse of when it will arrive! If the exhaust doesn't ship by Monday, I'm cancelling the order through Arrow and I'll let them sort out the whole stupid mess, soley due to their post-sale lack of customer concern. Magnaflow, while polite via my phone conversations really should suck-it-up and break the corporate operating procedure and send the replacement. They know the other unit is on the way back via the RMA pick-up validation from FedEx. They should take up the problem with Arrow off-line from the end consumer ... me!

Crap happens we all know and I understand. But there really needs to be a better line of comunication between these two companies; and really, the retailer should be the one making the effort to please the customer and help resolve this mess!!

My advice is to not buy from http://www.autopartswarehouse.com, which apparently does business as Arrow Speed Warehouse and All OEM Parts.

Arrow staff I dealt with:
Salesman - Buck, ext. 311: No care for customer concern post-sale.
Sales Supervisor - Douglas Bowen, ext. 8225: Polite, but pawned off the repsonsibility to another associate.
eCommerce Supervisor - Tony Beard, ext. 8568: Rude, doesn't return calls and shows no concern for end consumer.

Arrow Speed Warehouse is located at 686 South Adams, Kansas City, KS 66105, phone # 1-800-255-4606.

There ... I feel better ...

[CGGorman]

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind.

This isn't the first time we've heard complaints about Magnaflow cusotmer service, either...

[Lead Foot]

Originally Posted by CGGorman

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind.

This isn't the first time we've heard complaints about Magnaflow cusotmer service, either...

Finally got the answer I wanted today after talking once again to Tony at Arrow, only after threatening to cancel the order altogether. At that point he put me on hold for about 5 minutes and came back telling me it was all taken care of with Magnaflow. I called Magnaflow to verify and Alicia gave me a tracking number ... GOD I hope it's the right exhaust after all this!! Oh, and PS - I came to find out about the organization of order through which I ordered the exhaust. Seems Auto Parts Warehouse is the online retailer and do not stock ANYTHING. They order from Arrow Performance Warehouse who is one of Magnaflow's distributers. Since they did not have the exhaust it was drop-shipped right from Magnaflow.

Now, can anyone recommend a place to get Magnaflow stainless exhaust tips that are IN STOCK!??

[CGGorman]

I got some of my tips (I've got three cars running Magnaflow) from my favorote local muffler shop. They have shelves full of them and it's a locally owned outfit. Look around your area.