The heatshield on the nearside downpipes on the SDI had come adrift and was rattling. It's a Rimmer Bros SS sports system. It appeared to have pulled a spot weld out and the exhaust was blowing, so an MOT (due shortly) fail. Rimmers said it has a lifetime warranty, but wanted me to send it back for either repair or replacement. Unfortunately, my old bones ain't up to crawling around underneath the car on the street in this weather. KwikFit etc couldn't help. So I was considering just cutting my losses and buying a new down pipe from Rimmer and getting it fitted at an exhaust place.
Having nothing better to do I looked up Yellow Pages and there was a SS maker listed - Top Gear in Queenstown Rd Battersea. So I phoned up and they said, yes, they could fix it. Went straight there. Seemed to be a one man band - a charming young Australian (or New Zealander) who said he'd fix it for 50 quid there and then. Which he did, taking it off and TIG welding it. He also spent some time getting a better alignment between the flange and manifold - and redid all the other joints which he found to be leaking slightly. And removed the tailpipe and re-polished it. And replaced all the 'O' ring hangers. So near as dammit removed it all and started again. Two hours work for 50 quid. ;-) They can fabricate any exhaust in SS actually on the very well equipped premises. I was impressed. Most unusual for me. ;-)