Hi,

I think this is the 'aluminized' steel tubing you are talking about, steel
with a plating over it.  Works fine, most mufflers/pipes here in Canada are
aluminized, lifetime warranty on mufflers, but 1 year on pipes.  Road rash
breaks the coating and rust starts. The lifetime muffler warranty simply
means that you will come back to them for the 1/2-1.5 hour installation fee
every few years, repeat business. New pipes are your problem, they will
last at least a couple of years.  Vanagon mufflers here are around $95Cdn
($60US), often on sale for $75, plus say $25 installation. Cheap enough not
to buy a stainless steel version.  Only Dansk aftermarket bare steel pipes
available here, but st.steel pipes would be excellent choice!

I've never found a garage with a tube bender that would handle the tight
radius bends that the vanagons need.  Want to kludge something together
then get a set of J-pipes for the front cyls. and go from there, rear bends
near water pump are damn near impossible to mimic however. For the price of
the S&S headers I don't think it's worth kludging anything!

The $750 Stebro stainless stuff is pricey, but it is heavy gauge pipe, and
has very thick flanges because Stebro knows that the stuff will crack if
too thin. Stainless is 'notch sensitive', meaning if you put a knick in the
stuff and it sees repetetive/fatigue loading the notch will grow into a
nice crack (this happens in medical implants in some cases).  Stebros will
likely actually last a 'lifetime' like their warranty says. I'd opt for
Stebro pipes and the cheapo muffler, think Walker/Midas sells them.

bye, Tim