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I am ready to pull the trigger on side pipes for my 454 '73 car. As far as looking at the big Corvette parts suppliers, the Doug's systems seem to be more available. Is one better than the other as far as fitment? I see a lot of photos of side pipe cars, it looks like more have the metal rocker panels missing with side pipes than cars that have the metal rocker panels in place. I would really prefer to keep the metal rocker panels in place, in my opinion it is a much cleaner look.
I have a small block car, so it’s not completely the same, but as far as I can tell the design and fitment should be pretty much the same between the two brands.
Both require trimming on the rocker panel and maybe a small bit of the fiberglass underneath, but there’s no reason either system would prevent you from having rocker panels altogether. Probably just lazy people in the pictures, like me when I first put them on.
I went Doug’s stainless, fit perfect, I didn’t trim rockers had them welded from the bottom to bolt to frame under rockers. After seeing post two down from mine, I too went with VettePack inserts, Eric is great to deal with and they make a fine sounding product.
Last edited by SixAddict; Apr 8, 2025 at 01:45 PM.
Dougs are thicker gauge steel than Hooker so they should last longer. Lars had a thread about how bad his Hookers fit. I bought Chromed Dougs and used Vettepacks for mufflers. Drivers side had plenty of clearance. Passenger side needed a slight trimming of the rocker panel trim that is not visible once installed.
I recently installed a set of Hooker stainless on my 80 and as with anything aftermarket, had to do a little tweaking for them to fit properly.
The directions are general in nature and I did have to trim the rocker covers on both sides.
The thing that ticked me off was that the side pipes came with no mounting hardware. Had to buy that separately. That makes no sense to me.
I used a set of Spiral Turbo Baffles from https://www.spiralturbobaffles.com/ and they fit perfect.
About two years ago I installed Hooker stainless. The old set were Hooker ceramic coated 15 years old. I do not know where the old set were made. The new set China.
The side pipes had the attachment tabs to frame welded on in two different angles. Had to bend them so they were at identical angles. The small welded on brackets that the small bolt and nut are inserted had excessive weld material preventing the side pipe going onto the collector. Used a Dremel. The header flange was 1/6" thicker than the old one which is good in one respect but did move the flange closer to the steering box. Hopefully won't need to replace them but would use Doug's next time.
Thank you to everyone for the replies! Doug's headers and side pipes are supposed to be delivered Monday. I am going to look into vettepack mufflers over the weekend.
Thank you to everyone for the replies! Doug's headers and side pipes are supposed to be delivered Monday. I am going to look into vettepack mufflers over the weekend.
congrats... like many others I had to bend my mounting tabs to get the pipe openings to face straight out... i also looked at enough photos online to see where the end of the headers would come on the car and realized my frame holes for mounting would need to be reamed a little further toward the front of the car so the pipes would slide over the headers all the way forward... (I had read many had to oblong the holes more to get all the adjustment needed) I needed to open all holes about a 1/2" more.
It helps if this can be done first to mock up the pipes location and pipe opening position.
Thank you to everyone for the replies! Doug's headers and side pipes are supposed to be delivered Monday. I am going to look into vettepack mufflers over the weekend.
Congrats, if or when you go to Classic Chambered Exhaust website halfway down the page where the VettePack are advertised is a video of a black C3 for sound. Of course he has a cam so his sounds great. Of course anything with a cam (not stock) sounds great. Good luck.
Side Pipes: Hooker vs. Dougs
