[FR-S Matt]

Originally Posted by Dimman

This is why people need to educate themselves and investigate the products.

If it rusts, and they make no claim of it being 304 or better (or even full stainless at all) it is a too bad, so sad situation.

This is why I have been a bit of a d!ck to more than a few vendors when it comes to materials, fabrication method and country of origin.

Materials, people have a basic understanding that 304 is the one to have in exhausts. But there is more to it. Country of origin, or better, country of quality assurance plays a role in more than just fitment or welds cracking. The machinery company I work for buy literally tons of steel and aluminum per year (possibly even per month). The planning and purchasing departments are penny pinching misers. On the occasion that they've sourced cheaper material we've always ended up getting burned. Aluminum sold as 6061-T6 that isn't in the T6 condition (useless as it has half its strength), 304L stainless tubing that is out of round with a wall thickness variance of over 25%, 1060 induction-hardened linear shaft that isn't hardened. Each time it is never the whole batch, but from 10% to as much as 25% in the case of the linear shaft. All of it was Chinese-sourced from small Chinese or Canadian distributors. The stuff from US sources, or Chinese production via large corporations like NSK has had practically zero issues.

Any exhaust company that sources in China has a huge risk of quality issues because they don't oversea/own/partner with the factories. The factories run on razor thin margins and one rejected piece can wipe out the profit from a lot of sales. (Yes there will be ranges of factory quality, ranging from ok to terrible. But never good.) So a lot 'slips through' QA. You end up with a few people getting a good fit and durable system, another that needs a hammer for install, and another that fits ok but rusts out in 6 months. All from the same company.

Now as much as people get boners for the Japanese companies, they are not all huge and powerful to the point of being able to maintain suitable quality assurances over the entire supply chain. Not even Ford (transmissions) or Siemens (? German high-speed train) can do this. Add to the fact that two of the biggest Japanese aftermarket companies Trust/Greddy and HKS have been having tough times financially and you have a recipe for cost-cutting problems.

So you either get outsourced production with unverifiable supply chains, or material substitutions. Or both. (One or both of the Greddy/HKS FR-S exhausts in the DSport review use 409 stainless.)

There's more to this, but this is already too long and too ranty...

TLDR:

Nameless and Motiv are beautifully TIG welded, USA-made with USA-sourced 304L. Nameless is also testing the superior titanium-enriched 321 stainless.

JDL is beautifully TIG welded, USA-made, but I haven't confirmed their 304L source but given their standards, I would bet on USA-sourced.

Perrin and Borla are adequately MIG welded, USA-made with unconfirmed source 304.

Buy from these companies.

Couldn't agree more. It's funny not even knowing as much about steel and metals like you and I would have put all of those companies on top as ones I would purchase exhaust products from. I'm pretty positive JDL uses some pretty high quality stuff like Nameless. Maybe they can chime in here.

I'm always promoting Nameless products because they actually do live up to their standards. Just talk with Jason about your build on your car and you'll see why. It instills a lot of confidence in the product you're purchasing and they stand behind what they create. Not to mention they listen to their customers for ideas (i.e. Exhaust Diffuser being made for the Axleback by request) and go through some very interesting details of their builds. JDL did the same with their header and the collector testing they did on it. Two amazing companies.