Car Mechanic Discovers the World’s Most Poorly Assembled Exhaust System
The list of materials used is lengthy, but it includes hose clamps, speaker wire, and cast-iron plumbing elbows.
When an abnormally well-preserved Volkswagen fell into the hands of an Ohio mechanic earlier this year, the technician had no idea that they'd just picked up a car with a dark, embarrassing secret: The world's most poorly assembled exhaust.
The unnamed mechanic uploaded a video of the car to social media earlier this year, commenting on how little rust the old 1987 VW Rabbit cabriolet had for a car of its age in the Rust Belt before walking underneath to showcase the vehicle's "beautiful exhaust system." The "creative" series of pipes was seemingly fabricated from literal scrap, as it uses materials and assembly techniques that'd make anyone ask the local muffler shop for their money back.
"I received a car in trade and put it on the lift at my business," commented the repairman. "Upon the first inspection, I found the exhaust system to be extremely hacked together so I made a sarcastic video about it."
Here are some of the highlights: A cheapo, likely Chinese-built stainless steel exhaust manifold feeds into a collector that's joined by a pair of awful welds to the next segment of pipe, which is suspended from the car's unibody by hose clamps and roof lashing. From there, a flex pipe joins to a tube of unknown origin, a cast-iron plumbing elbow at its downstream end linking it to an apparently hammer-beaten pipe that barely makes it around what appears to be a rear crossmember. More booger-welded connections, a pair of junkyard motorcycle exhaust tips, and a twisted-up wire hanger complete what is—at least in our book—the world's worst exhaust job.
Hats on for that, lads and lasses.
