Hi everybody! I am looking for some 1955 Chevrolet bel air photos, I am precisely lookin for photos of that car with side exhaust. NOT side pipes but only exhaust in front of rear wheel. Thanks to all for the help! Danny
This is the only one I found with a quick search. I've had several rigs with exhaust that dumped in front of the wheels and if you have loud exhaust it gets very tiresome if you drive any real distance on a regular basis. That constant drone from the exhaust is annoying after 20 or 30 miles and tiring. It's fun to hear the noise bounce off barrier strips and buildings for a while too but that gets old after a while and it is cop bait. One more and maybe the best reason for not doing it is that the exhaust gets the rear wheels dirty with exhaust crud when you run that way and you have a lot more work keeping the wheels clean. I had side pipes on my 48 at one time and had that problem, then I ran short pipes that exited in front of the wheels because I didn't have the money to pay to have it done right. Same thing on my other truck. Lots of miles with the exhaust exiting in front of the wheels with a home made exhaust and lots of scrubbing on the alloy wheels. Personally unless there is a specific reason that makes it hard to run the exhaust out past the rear bumper I wouldn't have it exit from in front of the wheels.
So many reasons to not do this! I love them but thinkin about them you are totally right. I do not make so many miles on my '55 so the noise wouldn't be a big problem. But I discovered today another reason that made me think to not build side exit exhaust, which is that: On a stock '55, 4 drs, the chassis is 15 centimeters lower than the bottom of the frame.. so my exhaust will result about 20 cm's lower, under the door.. This make me so concerned and I sadly decided to change my project.. Sorry for my english, I am from Italy Danny