Adding the personal touch
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SS Autowerks: The mechanics giving your ride that little extra something
Meet the team who went from building their own cars in a tiny garage, to making the craziest custom builds.
Written by Jordan Clarke
7 min readPublished on
Earlier this week, we spoke to Danny Monday over at the prestigious SS Autowerks. They’re well known for their top-notch fabrication work, and will do anything from exhausts to full race prep, building both stance cars and MSA spec race vehicles.

What do people usually come to you for? Exhausts, cages, or chassis work?

An exposed car chassis
An exposed car chassis© SS Autowerks
Normally people come to us for a stainless exhaust system, but once they see the work we produce they usually decide to get booked in for extra work.
From track prep, full custom MSA spec roll cages to tubular turbo manifolds, the sky’s the limit. It’s great because it allows for us to not have to do any advertising as such. We can just rely on the reputation of our work to bring in the business.

What are you working on at the minute?

We have a B7 RS4 in at the minute for a full track build. Initially the owner came to us to specify and install an uprated suspension setup suitable for track use, where the factory DRC system was letting him down.
Upon coming to SS, he’s now decided to replace the poorly designed bolt in 4-point roll cage for a full MSA-spec 8-point cage with a subframe tie-in, flat floor & diffuser, and chassis mounted wing. It also benefits from a bespoke CSF oil cooler, dropping track temps from an insane 145 degrees to 98 peak (not sure you’d have this option at your local Kwik Fit).
Custom work can make the most out of any engine
Custom work can make the most out of any engine© SS Autowerks
We try and keep a few of our own builds in shop so people can see the type of work we carry out on our own cars for both track and stance use.
These are mainly built for track use, as we are more focused on the motorsport side of things. We currently have the B7 RS4, solely built for track use, the 200sx which we’re in the process of giving the same treatment to, along with the E36 – converted from a 316 – which is using a fully in-house built m50b25 turbo. It sounds fast – and if it sounds fast, it probably is!

Do you usually do track builds?

We don’t just stick to track builds, we also have other examples of our work, which involve working alongside local companies such as Only Charged Dubs and Wheel Unique, supplying and installing air suspensions, refinished wheels and chassis corrections.
We currently have our E38 BMW 740iL bagged on the BC / BAGS combo for our stance customers. That gets a lot of love.
The firm caters to individual needs
The firm caters to individual needs© SS Autowerks

How long have you been going and why did you start?

We initially started in 2013 when SS was set up as more of a lifestyle brand than a business, building our own cars. We had a very small unit which could just about fit half a car, but as time went on our builds and work started to get a lot of attention.
We started the brand as a bit of a joke between friends, as we weren't really involved in the car world. It started as a bit of a controversial move, to all the other people trying hard for their Instagram likes.
We got the business that we wanted without having to do that.
The team have been growing their business over several years
The team have been growing their business over several years© SS Autowerks
We were selling basic merch, T-shirts and stickers, and once we had a bit of money backing us we then started buying some equipment 
(The team used cheap tools on their own cars at first in order to learn and grow accustomed to the trade).
Eventually we got a couple more friends involved and moved to a bigger unit, where we are now. We're expanding again next month.
Using superior metal produces superior results
Using superior metal produces superior results© SS Autowerks
Even at this point we were still a brand rather than a business, so we weren’t working on customer’s cars, just our friends. Eventually we started to invest in some proper equipment – mainly welders, lifts, lathes – and taught ourselves the skills we needed to progress as a business.
We currently have 15 cars in the shop and three ramps, so quite a step up from the half car unit we started out in. We are now in a position where we can now offer our work as a service. Full time SS Autowerks has been going just over a year!

What exhausts do people usually come to you for? Performance, design or noise?

All of the above! We get a lot of motorsport applications through the doors and off-the-shelf exhausts are never really a straight fit or suitable for use in most cases, so we offer bespoke systems for pretty much anything.
We usually have to stick to the 95dBA limit, so that the cars can go on any track in the UK without any issues. This tends to need a lot of work, to get them properly specified for track use, as some cars break that limit straight from the factory.
Builds are always on show on premises
Builds are always on show on premises© SS Autowerks
On the other side, people see the quality of the race car work and want something nice as opposed to just track/performance work.
For example, we recently had a Mercedes C63 in for a full stainless-steel system with quad exit tips. A lot of the builds we get have been converted from NA (naturally aspirated) to a turbo application, so bespoke exhaust work is required with correctly installed downpipes – these are generally not available off the shelf.

Do you do custom fabrications? What’s your favourite thing to build for people?

We get a lot of complete builds; full chassis, cages, exhausts, etc. Generally speaking, I would say I get the most satisfaction when an exhaust job is done in a couple of days.
We always leave the cars up on the ramp so when the customer comes to collect they can see the work and see exactly what we’ve done.
A work in progress
A work in progress© SS Autowerks
It’s good to get happy customers when a job is turned around that quickly. They’re always over the moon with the quality of the work and love being able to see it in person.

What sort of timescale / price would a full exhaust system take?

Most companies like ourselves vary a lot in price; we usually get undercut by other local firms, but then a lot of the time we get those customers coming to us to fix bad work.
Customers may pay more to work with us, but they can do so with confidence due to our reputation for good work. We only use true, 316 grade stainless on our exhaust systems whereas some other companies use the lower grade, cheaper, poorly bent 304 stainless steel (304 tends to rust at a much faster rate).
We’ve had multiple cars in recently where we’ve had to remove the whole stainless-steel system; it was rusting after four weeks due to mild steel flanges and cooked welds.
We only use true 316, so it will come out a little more expensive, but you have the reassurance that it’s good work and quality material.
If you were looking at a typical turbo back, it will usually be done in a day, but we always tell customers up to two days just in case we run into any issues as a lot of people travel from out of town. Price and turnaround can vary a lot.
A job using true 316 grade stainless steel, v-bands, single silencer, and tips – you’d be looking at around £800-900. These prices can also vary geographically as we are pretty far up north – this might be differ from someone doing the same job in the south.
You can check out some of SS Autowerks' work on their Instagram @ssautowerks
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