Does anyone have any photos of how they’ve run their exhaust tubing to make their Bellflower tips functional? One of my cars is at the exhaust shop for some work (including a Bellflower installation) and they called and said they couldn’t figure out how to run the exhaust to make it work. I’m as puzzled as you guys…seems pretty straight forward to me…but I’m not a muffler guy. It would be cool if I had a few examples to show—photos taken from below, showing the tubing—when I stop out there tomorrow. Thanks!
It's off-topic...that's why I left it out. Guy at the shop said something about not enough room to make the bend to meet the bend on the Bellflower. I'll know more when I get to see it tomorrow morning, but thought it would be helpful to have a few photos of how other guys ran them for reference when I went.
@Ryan since Bellflower tips are a traditional modification for on-topic cars, any chance this thread can be moved back to the main forum? I only mentioned the type of car they were going on in my response to @Oneball (which I've since removed), but I'm afraid this is just going to die here in off-topic land. No worries if not...just seems like this is info that would apply to plenty of traditional customs that fit the main forum.
I think you're right, but that's why I was hoping to see how others have handled it. Can't be the first time this has come up. I'm wondering if shorting the length of the bend-back on the Bellflowers could help, but again...looking for reference material.
Not the best image angle, but it sounds like you need a better exhaust shop, one that has a bit of imagination. '62 Mercury Monterey Wagon. The 2.5" exhaust goes up and over the rear axle, around the triangulated 4 link and air springs, and then bends sharply in front of and around the fuel tank, before meeting up with the bell flowers. Is it optimized for good flow - hell no, as there is probably over 630 degrees of bends just to get from the front of the rear axle to the bellflowers, but it sounds good.
Yeah, what you've got there @FrozenMerc is what I'd envisioned. Not sure what their hang up is...but this is helpful. Thank you.
My guess is their hangup revolves around not being able to easily get the pipes on and off while bending them. Most exhaust shops will make a crude template, do an initial bend up out of a long stick, then mount the pipes, take measurements, take them off, tweak the bends, reinstall, check fit, rinse and repeat - often many multiple times. If your setup is half as complicated as mine, there is no way to easily remove and / or install the pipes without pulling other components off the ch***is. The only way to build a tight system like that is to cut pre-made U-Bends or doughnuts up and tack them in place one little piece at a time (see the extra bends sitting on the lift next to my ch***is). Then you only have to take the system off once, to finish weld, grind, and polish so it is not as much of a burden if the fuel tank or rear axle needs to be dropped out of the way. Cutting and piecing together bends is the way I fabricate all my exhaust systems, mainly because I don't own a tubing bender, but there are advantages to this method. The image below is of a system over the rear axle of a '60 T-bird I did last year. This car used mufflers in the stock location, directly in front of the rear bumper, but it would have been easy to adjust the last bend for a set of bellflowers if the owner had wanted to go that direction. I prefer to use U-Bends or J Bends over doughnuts, becuase the added straight length normally can be utilized and it cuts down on the total number of welded joints.
@FrozenMerc thank you very much for the photos and info. I swung by the shop this morning. I think the bottom line is they're good dudes, but not the right shop for that particular job. They're going to take care of the other stuff I needed to have done and leave the Bellflowers in the box. I've already spoken with another friend of mine who's going to give me a hand with them. Again, appreciate all the info.
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