Bell exhausts, rust, different sizes and their lifetime warranty

[Colin Lindsay]

I've been out in the garage sorting Herald exhausts and have enough bits for two and a half cars, so was trying to find the missing silencer or price online. 

Firstly: I have two stainless exhausts but whilst one has remained nice and shiny the other has gone dull and almost rusty - I say almost because the tail pipe has gone crusty but the rest is just dull brown with surface rust. It's for the early Herald and has the original centre resonator box, and both it and the silencer are marked BELL. I think it came from the club shop way back in the day. First impulse is to paint it, or at least treat the rust - I'm thinking matt black motorcycle exhaust paint along the lines of PJ1 Fastblack - any pitfalls with this?

 

 Secondly: Bell appear to have a lifetime warranty - was this in place back in the early 1990s and if so what does it cover? Anyone know off-hand?

Thirdly - why on earth are the exhausts all different lengths? The straight bit from the exhaust manifold to the first curve differs nearly nine inches in the shiny silver stainless one, from the earlier dull stainless Bell version and another spare mild steel version on the left, below, and some of them are a foot longer at the rear than the others.

  

...and finally - if I need one replaced, who is best these days for a simple original-style Herald 1200 exhaust that is bent correctly and fits the mountings?

[Mathew]

Different grades of stainless, we had stainless machine's at work which rusted within a month, not caked just dirty lines.

The problem with mix and match exhausts instead of whole systems tend not to quite fit exactly,  most of the time you can get away with it but if its a tight space a rattle or leak often happens. 

[Pete Lewis]

3 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

dull version (centre) and another spare mild steel version (left).

were there a picture that would help   but  found this   http://www.british-stainless-exhaust.com/

 Bell Stainless Steel backs this up by offering a lifetime warranty against defects for as long as you own the car.

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

5 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

were there a picture that would help   but  found this   http://www.british-stainless-exhaust.com/

That company is American, so postage would be higher even than what Canleys usually charge. I don't have a long enough camera to get it all in one shot so:

 

It's the lower one in both photos with the centre expansion box. The other one is the mild steel version. I suspect that the rear silencer for the non-Bell version is almost a foot longer when fitted, so may make up for the shorter main pipe.

[Mathew]

Proof required that you bought it and it was fitted to that car then? Not one that had previously been fitted to a car you did not own.!?

[Clive]

2 minutes ago, Mathew said:

Proof required that you bought it and it was fitted to that car then? Not one that had previously been fitted to a car you did not own.!?

Defect won't cover cosmetic stuff. Maybe if the exhaust rusted through, or possibly loose baffles?  

[Pete Lewis]

Ive got a pea shooter  ( std) bell silence from a vitesse i keep giving it away and it keeps returning as dosnt fit , but it came off one 

Pete

[PeterH]

409 stainless is ferritic. It will surface rust. It is magnetic and is the grade often used for exhausts. 304 is austenitic - non magnetic and generally won't rust. 316 is even better and used in marine environments.. The company I used to work for make exhaust spark arresters. They have to be made of 316 for safety reasons, but we used to make general industrial exhausts (fork lift trucks, gen sets etc.) and used 409.

Incidentally I knew Ron Bell of Bell silencers quite well as a customer of some of our components. He retired before I did so that must be 10 years +

 

[dougbgt6]

I replaced my stainless exhaust a couple of years ago, I think I bought it from Rimmers 40 years ago, but who knows?  The old system stainless bits were OK, but some of the welds were shot as were the internal baffles. Don't mess about, get a new one. 

Doug

[Chris A]

9 hours ago, PeterH said:

409 stainless is ferritic. It will surface rust. It is magnetic and is the grade often used for exhausts. 304 is austenitic - non magnetic and generally won't rust. 316 is even better and used in marine environments.. The company I used to work for make exhaust spark arresters. They have to be made of 316 for safety reasons, but we used to make general industrial exhausts (fork lift trucks, gen sets etc.) and used 409.

Incidentally I knew Ron Bell of Bell silencers quite well as a customer of some of our components. He retired before I did so that must be 10 years +

 

I worked for Racal Defence Electronics years ago, can't tell you about it or would have to kill you 😆, one quality engineer would regularly take samples of screws, bolts and /or nuts and put them in the gutter of his garage to see if they rusted or degraded to confirm if they were to the correct spec.

what I will say about the job is that after an interview and before an offer can be made the candidate is subject to investigation for the official secrets act. The day I started my boss told me that when the result of the check on me came back it simply said that I was still covered by it therefore no need to redo it. When telling me this he had a puzzled look on his face, I said nothing. No doubt he went back over my CV and found the job in my past that would have explained it.

 

[PeterH]

10 hours ago, PeterH said:

The company I used to work for make exhaust spark arresters.

One job I remember was making exhausts for the aircraft towing tractors used on deck when we had aircraft carriers. That was before the standard specified 316 and we were using an even lower grade of stainless: 3CR12. The Navy compained they were rusting and we had to give a 'Life Time' guarantee. The suppliers of 3CR12 (Actually made in South Africa) gave us the corrosion figure and we worked out it would take something like 100+ years before the metal acutally perforated.

[Dick Twitchen]

12 minutes ago, PeterH said:

when we had aircraft carriers

Drift warning.  We still do and whilst they may not be as physically large the capability is there.  Before anybody starts comparing with the USN I was the Director of the Maritime Warfare Centre responsible for the concept and doctrine development and briefing over in the USA their projections produced something similar to QE and PoW. 

Dick

[JumpingFrog]

The different lengths before the first bend, 1200, 12/50 and 13/60 exhausts are all different. I think you have two 1200 exhausts (the longer ones) and one 12/50 exhaust (shorter)?

In general I agree about the dimensions being not true to the originals. I had one stainless 13/60 exhaust (I can't remember who made it) that didn't line up with the silencer hanger at all until a 10cm section was cut out of it.

[Colin Lindsay]

1 hour ago, JumpingFrog said:

The different lengths before the first bend, 1200, 12/50 and 13/60 exhausts are all different. I think you have two 1200 exhausts (the longer ones) and one 12/50 exhaust (shorter)?

The silver one was bought new by me, it's been trial fitted to the 1200 estate but hangs very low - however totally rust free and will be used. The other two came off a 1200 (the convertible I'm working on) and the other possibly off a 948 but neither was 12/50, although the longer 12/50 manifold does make sense. It won't clear the bellhousing on  a 1200 manifold but the downpipe is very narrow even compared to the others. They're solid enough, silencers are good so I'll see which is the best fit on the 1200 convertible and use that. I'm missing one rear box, though, unless it's salted away in the roofspace - must look in daylight.

I'd never have the gall to claim on the warranty... was just checking to see if they covered the unit, or was it the lifetime of the original car.

Edit: found the silencer; nice stainless rear box in good nick. Happy Days.

[Badwolf]

Colin - If you haven't done so already it would be worth a message to Bell asking for their advice on the matter as you would have expected their product to last longer. The worst that they can do is tell you to 'go away'!!