my 10 year old racing beat muffler has recently rusted through in one spot. except for this small area it appears to be in good condition.

can it be patched?

as info a replacement is $381 delivered

 

Rust... no.

I can almost garuntee when you cut it open you'll find more weak areas.

 

Just patch it. What have you got to lose?

 

$381!

 

Exactly.

 

I cut mine open and repacked it with steel wool, been good ever since. I say give it a shot, cut a bigger hole to remove some of the rust, stuff some more steel wool in there and weld it up.

 

Patch or sell it to me for a twenty spot, lol. Patch it!

 

Why do those mufflers rust? Is it due to accumulation of water inside? If so, would the addition of a drainage hole / increase in size of the existing one help?

 

took the muffler to a nearby welding/ fabrication shop and had it patched, then i sprayed some krylon stove paint on the bare metal.

it wasn't cheap ($80) but it looks like it may be a good solution, time will tell..

 

The repair looks decent. May it last another 10 years.

Edit: thinking about it some, that muffler should have lasted 20 years without problems. Makes me wonder how good your rubber hangers are and how well tuned your engine was. Looks like some fatigue was happening back there due to heat (lots of it from a bad tune?) and not enough support. Notice the paint was gone? Actually, the Italian company that makes these mufflers uses a carbon paint that just brushes off after a few heat cycles so that's nothing new. It's a good idea to brush off as much loose paint as possible and repaint with some ceramic paint you get from the auto parts store. But that BBQ paint you used should work too.

 

Nice patch, archived for future use.