Recommendations on Muffler and Body/Paint shop locations.

I am thinking about doing the One-Ball muffler upgrade. I have found a place to order it but have also read that it would be much cheaper just to have a local shop install it. So need a few idea's so I can get price quotes.

http://www.fasttoy.com/fb18.html



Also I am interested In getting my trim either painted or I guess the Aero Kit installed. So I need a few recommendations for paint shops to get some quotes so I can compare the prices with the install/paint of the aero kit.

Any help would be much appriciated, thanks in advance.

 

Show that picture to an exhaust specialty shop and see how much they would charge. I know of one other MCS owner that has it and it seems to be OK. Figure about $80 labor.

Shipping of that large muffler to Hawaii would be too expensive.

One ball results- not startling, maybe a little better exhaust note-maybe not. About the same power, not worse. Definitely lighter and voids your muffler warranty. Since we usually just throw the stock muffler away doing a one ball isn't bad and might have resale value for others that might want it later anyway.

Talk to Randy at the dealership about the two shops that they go get the painting and aerokits installed at. One is Central. They do good work.

 

Two muffler shops that are used to doing performance exhausts are Exhaust Systems Hawaii and Barrs Muffler. Just beware that the two Barrs muffler shops are not related. I prefer Bobby Barr's in Kaneohe.

However, looking at the site for the one ball, it doesn't seem to complicated as the kit is a slip on coupler. All youwould need is a good chop saw and some jackstands. Perhaps you guys could schedule a DIY and do this as a group.

As for painting, BMW/MINI uses Central Auto in Pearl City. They do very good work and will have the paint matches down. Other places are Global in Sand Island and Steves on Ilaniwai, 2 blocks behind MINI.

 

Yeah talked to Randy after I posted this and he gave me Euro Auto Tech and Central Auto Body as the 2 paint shops the dealership uses.

He also suggested the HSE for the muffler work.

 

Central Body Paint???? In my opinion they did not do a good job on my MCS
It tooks them 90 days to fix and put my car together also I am still waiting for a loaner that they said they don't have, my car needs to repaint and some other stuff that they missed.

 

i can testify personally to european autotech's fine work. took ~10 days i believe, including all the work - removal, sanding, multiple coatings with drying time inbetweens and reinstall. a few days after pick up, i had the newly-painted front trim clear bra'd for protection. ~$1300 including installing the black aero grille bonnet and bumper pieces. fully satisfied.

not to put down central, but i did see drea-min's paint job. not exactly 100% satisfied is what i'd be. but most everybody else i believe has had good experience with them.

 

oh yeah, and i had my milltek exhaust done at exhaust systems hawaii on king street near university. in and out, no problem. ~1 hour or so max. saved my old jcw exhaust along with boxing per my request. forget how much. but i believe everybody else who was in on the milltek group buy had their's done at sonic for slightly less $$.

 

Exhaust system of Hawaii be aware when asking for estimates. I ordered my
Borla exhaust, he estimated around $750.00, when the exhaust finally arrived he jacked the price to 950.00 and asked me if i have a written estimates from him... I talked to him trough the phone and thought his word are good enough but he insist, to make my story short I don't thrust this guy especially the guy at Waipahu. I ended up ordering through the net and even way cheaper.
Just a thought...