Hey Guys,

Just got my invoice to go single...
I knew it was going to cost me, but had a quick question on how much shops charge to fabricate piping. Can anyone else share how much they paid to get your intercooler pipes fabricated, your BOV welded on? Thanks.

Victor

 

i know a shop that charges 400 to mount the intercooler and fabricate piping. it depends how intricate the piping needs to be. shop around and get quotes, also ask if they provide materials.

 

hmmm...mine was $800. just seemed high for fabricating piping. and i know they used some of my old greddy pipes. and that doesn't include polishing!

 

I cut mine up my self from aluminum tubing I got from burns stainless. I then marked how I wanted them welded together and found a local tig welder to weld them up. He charged me $75 for the service and that included welding on my Tial BOV flange.

 

yeah do that **** yourself man. That was the easiest thing on my turbo upgrade. And you guys are running fd's where there is hardly any piping at all.

 

We do front mounts a lot from our shop/garage we charge a minimum $500 bucks that include couplings, t-bolts and pipes, mounting the intercooler, and tig welding, You get the point.

$800 is still not that bad considering the fact that tig welding is expensive within its self, and very tidious work. To fill the tank and all the electricy the machine uses is very pricey by themself.

 

I think 800 is a bit much for mounting and making intercooler piping but that what happens when you let other people do it. You figure its an hourly charge, I can see it taking 8 hours to fab up mount and make piping, figure shop rates are around 80-100 an hour.

Chris

 

If they are going to do everything correctly, sure $800 easy.
Grinding welds on the inside flush, rolling beads into the end of each pipe etc. Takes time to do things correctly.

Not every shop does everything the same way, thats the real problem with pricing in this market.

 

$800 for piping? Ihor and I charge less than that to install a single turbo setup on an FD......

 

Most of the piping in my car I did myself. If you know a friend that can weld, and have a nice pipe cutter ( I even used a dremel for one ) then the only price you have to pay are for piping. I would go with ATP turbo. 800 seems very high.

Can't you find a Greddy front mount intercooler with pipes for a single for about 800 bucks? I got my greddy front mount with pipes for twins for 850

 

800 for IC pipes, couplers, clamps. I knew there was a reason I do all of my fabing and mig welding myself. Its easy enough if you have a belt sander and some way to cut the piping (drop saw, band saw, cut-off wheel, sabre saw). Just a matter of time and fitting the pipes. I then use a drop or two of super glue at the pipe joints, take to the welder(tig), clean up the welds and your good to go.

 

Really? I should've shipped my car up to you. Especially since you also have a 500R.


I have a Greddy FMIC for twins. So the fabricator used some of my old pipes to fabricate the piping.

Either way, what's done is done. Lesson learned. I trusted the shop installing my single to send it out to a fabricator and I got charged more than most. Unfortunately, I'm still somewhat new to the area and don't know any fabricators I could've taken it to.

 

I was looking for the cost of fabricating intercooler piping and came across this page, even though I'm going to to go custom twin, it gives me an idea. I have a feeling my twin core v-mount will cost me somewhere $2,500+.

 

The same place that did your tuning also does all of its fab work in house.
Now you know:-)

 

You really have to find a skilled competant and talented fabricator by referal. With you providing all of the pipes a muffler shop could do it for $60 but that doesn't mean it will look good.

I had a fabricator (behind mazdatrix) do a bracket for my air pump and he told me it took hime over 10hrs @100/hr. I took it to a real fabricator and he made an adjustable one in less then an hour! So, the 1st shop is incompetant and should be charging only $10/hr or better yet out of bussiness. Moreover, the FMIC piping he did had huge gaps, the bends were at the wrong angles and his welding got sloppier as he went along.

I just had a custom exhaust installed. I paid for two mandrel bends (most likely one 90 cut in half) and maybe 12-16" of SS tubing, as well as labor. The total was $350 and the work took about three hours. www.zoomersexhaust.com did excellent work. Clean tig welds and a nice smooth flow. I was quoted the same price by another shop (welding works) with aluminized steel and their mig welds are look like muffler shop welds.

The quotes above are for installing the FMIC in addition to fitting and welding the pipes. He was charged for fitting (cutting & welding) and he provided the pipes. I don't see how it could have possible taken them 8 hours to do. I can't can't see more then 2 hours per side.

 

Was the guy's name Matt? I think I talked to him before too. I forgot what his quote was for a custom twin turbo set up. Twins Turbo is down the street from Mazdatrix, they do a better job.

 

^ yes, that's him. He should only be charging $10/hour. Actually I should have pursued it to the BBB and BAR. He claims his wife tracks the hours worked but she is only there for about 1 to 2 hours a day at the most. Him charging $100/hr to go to home depot would be considered illegal and $100/hr for phone calls only works for attorneys. If I didn't care about hurting Mazdatrix I would have had my attorney sue for for bad faith, maybe a class action lawsuit. Incompetance is no excuse for illegal price gouging.