Stainless is what I do most.
Five years on the torch, most of it lately on stainless exhaust — race headers, primaries, full custom systems. You're hiring the person who does the work, not a counter and a queue.
The work is
the résumé.
Five years welding, plate and tube certs from Illinois Central College, a boilermaker apprenticeship underway, and jobs on both sides of the trade — production floors, where the same weld has to come out right a hundred times, and field work, where nothing is square and you fix it where it sits.
TIG is my specialty. It's the process that matters most on thin-wall exhaust tubing, aluminum, and stainless — the stuff that shows, and the stuff that cracks if it's rushed. But MIG and stick get the same standard from me. Heavy bracketry, chassis repair, rusty subframe work: I pick whichever process is right for the joint, not the one that's already set up.
Stainless exhaust is where most of my hours go. Race headers and full custom systems, built from raw tube instead of modified off-the-shelf parts — primaries cut to length on the car, back-purged joints so the inside of the weld looks like the outside, and slip fits where a joint is unavoidable. Some of that work has been alongside Roxanne's Headers, who have been building Formula Vee exhaust systems for decades, and 4MULA Vee Enginuity, a Formula Vee parts supplier. Open-wheel racers are hard customers to satisfy — the part has to fit inside a body panel, clear the starter and the oil cooler, and make power. That's a good standard to hold everything else to.
The rest is repair work. A cracked cage leg, a rusted-through midpipe, a hanger that tore off — steel that has to go back together properly rather than get patched over. I measure it, mock it up, and check the fit on the car before anything gets burned in solid.
Nobody leaves unhappy. If something isn't how you wanted it, tell me and I'll make it right.
- Name
- Ilya Richardson
- Focus
- Stainless exhaust & headers
- Experience
- Welding since 2021 · professionally since 2023
- Training
- Illinois Central College (ICC) welding program
- Certs
- Plate · Tube
- Processes
- TIG · GTAW MIG · GMAW Stick · SMAW
- Materials
- Mild steel · Stainless · Aluminum
- Settings
- Production · Field · Shop
- Also
- Boilermaker apprenticeship, in progress
Where the
hours came from.
Different jobs teach different things. Here's what each one put into the work you'd be paying for.
Illinois Central College
Learned the processes properly instead of picking them up sideways — joint prep, positions, reading what the puddle is telling you, and why a weld fails when it fails. Came out with plate and tube certifications.
Shop floor work
Repetition under a clock. It builds consistency — the tenth bead looks like the first, and the fit-up is right before the hood comes down.
On-site jobs
Welding upside down, in tight spots, on parts that can't come off. That's most exhaust and chassis repair on a car, which is exactly why it transfers.
Richardson Fabrication
My own bench. Stainless exhaust for race and street cars, chassis and suspension parts, cage repair, and everyday exhaust work — jobs where you can see for yourself whether the person welding knows what he's doing. Lately that includes Formula Vee front axle repair.
Bring me
the problem.
Race header set, a full custom system, or an exhaust that's hanging by one hanger — text a few photos and I'll tell you what it takes.