1955 Continental Kit Removal and exhaust leak.

[JimLeanna55Bird]

A couple of months ago I had new mufflers installed to get rid of the glasspak sound and make it more cruiser sounding. Found a rebuttable shop and they did the mufflers job great. At same time my Continental Kit exhaust ports had a 90-degree down turn on the end of the tail pipes. Did not look good and they replaced them with straight end chrome pipes. After a few weeks I noticed an exhaust leak coming from the area under the Continental Kit platform. Last week I decided to remove the Continental Kit and return it to original design at the rear end. Well when I removed the kit I found the reason for the leak! They just stuck the chrome ends onto the tailpipes and did one tack weld to hold it in place and left the rest of the joint open the entire circumference of the pipe joint! This allowed a serious exhaust leak to blow back onto the back of the car. Had it buffed as good as they could but the rest is damage to the clear coat which will require the entire lower back face of the car to be repainted and clear coated. Was able to get it into another muffler shop that has been in business for more than 60 years in the same spot and they fixed it up right, removed entire tail section, cut to proper length to fit without Continental Kit and re welded and installed new hangars! Looks great I think. Just continue to be amazed at how many people don't do things right the first time and just make more work for the rest of us.

This page contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. As an eBay Partner, and Amazon Associate I may be compensated if you make a purchase at no cost to you.

 

[lbc3]

Sometimes it is laziness, but typically it is just ignorance. I owned a small chain of 8 general repair shops doing 15K repairs a year, so even with a failure rate of 1%, you can imagine I what I was consumed with most of the time. We worked on every make and model and typically the mistakes were simply from the technician not knowing. I got out in '07 and skilled labor was scarace then; I can just imagine what it is now. Understand, I am not a technician beyond oil changes and tire repair, so I am struggling to make repairs on my 55, specifically electric window regulator, door alignment/adjustment, pcv conversion kit, and the latest...replace a leaking transmission oil pan and differential gasket. There just aren't any mechanics that go that far back anymore, so I suspect your continental kit was a new one on them, but if the second shop says they f'd it up, then I would go to the offending shop and seek compensation. If they blow you off, check out what it will take to file suit in small claims court. Your only misstep may have been if you did not give the first shop the opportunity to fix their mistake. But I still think, based on my experience, your chances are good for recovering the cost or repair, paint restoration, and court costs. Good Luck!

 

[JimLeanna55Bird]

Sometimes it is laziness, but typically it is just ignorance. I owned a small chain of 8 general repair shops doing 15K repairs a year, so even with a failure rate of 1%, you can imagine I what I was consumed with most of the time. We worked on every make and model and typically the mistakes were simply from the technician not knowing. I got out in '07 and skilled labor was scarace then; I can just imagine what it is now. Understand, I am not a technician beyond oil changes and tire repair, so I am struggling to make repairs on my 55, specifically electric window regulator, door alignment/adjustment, pcv conversion kit, and the latest...replace a leaking transmission oil pan and differential gasket. There just aren't any mechanics that go that far back anymore, so I suspect your continental kit was a new one on them, but if the second shop says they f'd it up, then I would go to the offending shop and seek compensation. If they blow you off, check out what it will take to file suit in small claims court. Your only misstep may have been if you did not give the first shop the opportunity to fix their mistake. But I still think, based on my experience, your chances are good for recovering the cost or repair, paint restoration, and court costs. Good Luck!

I’m certainly no master mechanic but I pretty well know that when you do an exhaust system and you have an open joint, you’re supposed to weld it completely shut. I’m gonna just chalk it up to another bad experience and move on as I really don’t have time to deal with small claims court and things of that nature for what is going to turn out to be a relatively simple fix.

 

[Tom Alpers]

I was reading about mechanic hierarchy and found that the "muffler guy" is usually the lowest paid skilled shop guy. For the few times I've had muffler work done I have been unimpressed with the work. One place assured me they had "one of the best". When I got the car back with the new muffler the tail pipe was aimed all wrong and banging on the body. They really didn't see why I didn't think it was right but bent it down enough to stop banging. The best exhaust job I had was when I bought a full factory style dual exhaust kit and installed it myself.

 

[rwood]

A couple of months ago I had new mufflers installed to get rid of the glasspak sound and make it more cruiser sounding. Found a rebuttable shop and they did the mufflers job great. At same time my Continental Kit exhaust ports had a 90-degree down turn on the end of the tail pipes. Did not look good and they replaced them with straight end chrome pipes. After a few weeks I noticed an exhaust leak coming from the area under the Continental Kit platform. Last week I decided to remove the Continental Kit and return it to original design at the rear end. Well when I removed the kit I found the reason for the leak! They just stuck the chrome ends onto the tailpipes and did one tack weld to hold it in place and left the rest of the joint open the entire circumference of the pipe joint! This allowed a serious exhaust leak to blow back onto the back of the car. Had it buffed as good as they could but the rest is damage to the clear coat which will require the entire lower back face of the car to be repainted and clear coated. Was able to get it into another muffler shop that has been in business for more than 60 years in the same spot and they fixed it up right, removed entire tail section, cut to proper length to fit without Continental Kit and re welded and installed new hangars! Looks great I think. Just continue to be amazed at how many people don't do things right the first time and just make more work for the rest of us.

It is getting more difficult to find quality repairs for our old rides. I am 60 and I worked on many classics in my early years. I take it for granted that these younger mechanics understand simplicity’s like fuel air mixture on carburetor, simple 12 volt ignition systems and setting dwell or timming on HEI. Even exaust work and bending welding exhaust systems. The truth is that when I was younger points and plugs we just being phased out for HEI, carburetor's were being phased out for fuel injection and when computers hit the seen in the eighties simple 12 volt electrical systems were replaced with control modules for every function in the car it seemed. There is not much money to be made in repairing the classics for a high volume shop. Cars are so complicated now many shops will refer you to the dealer if it’s not a simple fix . Lastly most younger techs only replace complete parts assemblies. They make more money on the complete assembly, it takes less time to fix so that means higher productivity/ volume and profit. It’s sad but true but in many respects the fine art of auto repairs is being lost to Father Time.