I have 69 style sidepipes and the front pipe part (behind wheel) sits low, one one side the whole bend can be seen under the shield.
Any ideas on cause and possible fixes?

 

Check your motor mounts.

 

you may have to cut a piece out, and weld the down pipe a little bit to get it just right. this is what i had to do .

 

Do I need to remove them to check them, or should I be able to tell that they are in need of replacement but just having a look at them?

 

Mine are lower on one side than the other, did you have to remove the same amount from both sides?

 

they were a little different. you'll have to mesure each side..

 

Loosen the 3 manifold to exhaust pipe bolts push the pipe bend up and tighten the bolts and check the rear mount bolts while you are at it.

 

Hi MS,
Perhaps you might want to consider if the covers are installed properly. The black fiberglass insulator doesn't fit tight up against the bottom lip of the front fender, door and dog-leg. It's actually dropped down further than it looks in this picture.
If so much of the pipe shows perhaps it is the pipe. Could you take the pipe to a muffler shop and have the 'sharpen' the bend as the pipe comes down from the manifold and and makes that 90 degree turn to the side of the car? That would tip the muffler up some at the front.
Regards,
Alan

 

I'll take some pics so you can see how low they sit, looks too low to me.

 

My exhaust donut was pretty bad. After replacing it and holding the pipe in the correct position and tightening the nuts on the flange, everything was good. Put a little anti-seize on the nuts.

 

I'll have to recruit an extra set of hands

 

Yea , I had a bit of situation to going on with my 74 corvette last summer. The fit was not exact for the GM pipes. It was odd on mine the holes for the rocker panel was not the same as the new cover , they were off about 2 inches.

It took some adjustment and redrilling holes to get it all in the spots that it looked best..... If the cover doesn't line up front to back at the fender lips it won't look right, and to get a nice perfect fit required some modest changes.

The bends in the pipe are not perfect, and also , probally no two corvettes back then were exactly the same, you know how poorly every thing fits from car to car.

Odd ....I grew up looking at all the imperfection in panels and fit on these cars. Seeing one restored to perfection somehow just seems fake or wrong.

 

 

Alan71 has a good point - I think the main problem is your covers or their installation height. Take a look at the distance between the back lip of your front fender and the front horizontal section of the side cover - while my car with the factory covers has a gap of a little over 1", yours appears to have a much smaller gap. The overall height of your cover also might be a little less than the factory measurements. Combined with some adjustments needed in the mount angle at the manifold, that might be enough to give the problems that you show here.
SOME showing of the mufflers is OK - the picture below shows the bottom edge of the muffler - I just painted it black so you wouldn't see it.

 

WOW!!Are those covers made by PARAGON? Dang That sure is a poor fit for sure.

I mounted mine DEAD CENTER , like the rockers that were on there. It just looks WRONG to have the back of the cover cover hanging out the back past the fiberglass at the rear fender. I couldn't mount them like that.. .... If they are mounted DEAD center then the muffler exits dead center of the cover outlet....it wa sabout 2 inchs in the wrong place....but that doen't have anything to do with the pipes hanging what looks to be about 4 inch low verticle.....I think the issiue is in the pipes not the cover... i

I was lucky to have a lift and extra pairs of hands and someone who had seen this issue before on a 72 vette installation.

The pipes themselves fit fine and I didn't have to bend anything. Took about 5 hours to install the complete kit "ON A LIFT"

It took some redrilling , I got the paragon (GM ) resto covers deadcenter where the rocker cover came, no back stick out , thats would have looked stupid. . I also had to mod the rear braces . The result looks great. You need to get the pipes tucked up tight to. Could be you'll need to do some work on the muffler pipes cut or bend to get them where they need to go. Overall my paragon stuff was pretty close

On flat pavement , you can't see the mufflers at all. It can be done.

 

No idea who made them, they were on the car when I bought it in Sept '09

So my options are low the covers or raise the pipes, after I verify my motor mounts and exhaust donuts aren't toast.

Any sort of "gotchas" I should be looking for while working on this?

 

Paragon makes the GM resto or offical part. They are made from original GM tooling I understand . All the major corvette suppliers buy them from Paragon. It maybe that you don't even have the correct mufflers to fit under your covers. The last guy might have been sticking what ever he found cheap to get them on there reguardless of the appearance It appears to off so far , that is my guess, mismatched parts from maybe another car that had headers and then they were refitted to your car...or bought used. . The price of new set mufflers &pipes are not so bad priced . It is hard to fix somebody elses poor work or shorcuts. You might spend tons of time labor costs and still have a sorry looking mess. If you are comitted about having the sidepipes , and REALLY REALLY want them , maybe buying a new set of PARAGON mufflers for your application , install them and see what you have. I guess you have stock iron exhaust and not headers. If your covers don't work withthe mufflers , a possiblitiy, then you might have to have the correct covers too.

If you plan on keeping the car and really want the sidepipes , maybe investing in a complete outfit , might be more satisfying in the long run.

If the cover are not original GM or Parargon reproductions then they may not do the job correctly.

The buying whole deal is new is not cheap, but there is alot of work making the chrome covers , the fit was reasonable , I'm very pleased with mine.

 

Moonsteel, your covers appear to be mounted too high for some reason. I'm not an expert just my observation. I'd love to have factory sidepipes on my 72,right now I have magnaflow.Good Luck

 

anyone have a scan of the 1969 AIM page that shows how they are supposed to be mounted?

 

Hi ,
Here are a couple more pictures of my covers that show how far below the body and door lip they're mounted. These are original GM covers from 1971 that I painted black.
Since the two flat head screws you see in last 2 pictures screw into the bracket welded to the muffler they help determine how far below the cover the rear of the muffler and turn-out hang. Those screws also determine how far front or rear the covers are mounted, since the bracket allows no adjustment.
Hope this helps with the placement of your covers.
Regards,
Alan