Fought a rusty exhaust clamp on my Shadow for 4 hours in a Halifax driveway, was it worth doing solo?

Margaret Flores · 2026-09-12T08:50:05.04283+00:00

Tbh I spent almost my whole Saturday last weekend in my buddy's driveway in Halifax fighting one rusty exhaust clamp on my Honda Shadow, and it turned into a 4 hour job when I figured it would take maybe 20 minutes. The nut was so rusted it just rounded off no matter what I tried, so I ended up soaking it in penetrating oil, waiting, heating it with a torch, waiting again, and then cutting the whole thing off with a dremel because nothing else worked. The worst part was I had to run to Canadian Tire twice, once for the torch and once for a replacement clamp, and each trip ate up like 45 minutes. My buddy kept saying just take it to a shop and pay the $80, but I wanted to learn how to do it myself and honestly I did learn a ton about how fast rust wins up here with all the road salt. Now I'm stuck wondering if doing my own wrenching is actually saving me money once you count the tools and the lost Saturday, or if I'm just being stubborn. So which side are you on, do you keep grinding through these driveway jobs yourself or do you hand it off to a mechanic once it hits the 2 hour mark?

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Fought a rusty exhaust clamp on my Shadow for 4 hours in a Halifax driveway, was it worth doing solo? | Canadian Riders Hub - Guest Forum