Looking around it seems like a guy is hard pressed to find anyone still producing these shorter "kickstand" style pipes. All searches lead to older threads and it looks like @Tuck may be producing them is some limited capacity but is there anywhere a guy can still get them? I keep an eye out for take offs/NOS pairs but I'm sorta impatient and would rather "now" than "later" Example:
Never heard or saw them called "Kickstand" until a few months ago., That may be the reason you aren't finding anything. I'm 74 and have been into hot rods since I was 12 and it is a new term to me. It may be one of those goofy terms like Dizzy that snuck in from somewhere else and guys thought they got cool points for using it. We just called the pipes you show "shorty lakes pipes" back when guys ran them in their 55 Chevys rather than sneaker plugs.
Kickstands. I heard that term from Americans when applied to those pipes, short and long. Dizzy has been in use in AU forever. We shortern everything, including car related words. Hence dizzy, carbie, trannie, diff, uni, but no one calls an engine a donk anymore. Back to kickstands...
No way haha, I love how they look sneaking out from under coupe fenders (maybe I'll call 'em sneaky lakers just to keep @Mr48chev on his toes). I know I could always make up a set and have them dipped but I was hoping someone somewhere could save me the hassle.
A good thread on kickstand pipes https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/kickstand-lake-pipes.417489/
Killer example. Personally I would weld some up in SS, which is what I am doing on my GMC. It is getting kickstands AND belly burners
Hello, Total agreement with @Mr48chev… that name is a new one that someone just decided that the pipe looks like a kickstand from a bicycle. But, in reality, anyone can make up a name and try to get others to like the title. Those are short “Lakes” pipes that did have some time in the custom car world and before anyone got the Cal DMV involved in rules and regulations for exhaust pipes. In the late 50s, back when chrome lakes pipes were beginning to show up on daily drivers, they were mostly just long chrome pipes with exhaust caps. The term lakes pipes were not used by most hot rod guys. The term popped up later, much like folklore icons start with popularity of a term. The old pipes running along the bottom of the doors would have be hooked up to bypass the muffler and street exhausts. That is one look at its origins. The other was to emulate the race cars with individual header pipes running out and down, then back, for the street guys, these long chrome side pipes were an accessory add on. 90 % of them were never welded into the area in front of the mufflers. The curved front pipe went up and back so no one could see if it did hook up to the engine exhaust manifolds. They were cool additions to everyday street cars and those that did uncap them, if they were hooked up immediately had bad exhaust fumes coming into the cab. Not only did they make noise, but the smell was awful running down the street or just idling. To most, they were add-ons for custom car guys for another chrome thing. Terminology has its own roots. It may have been an area thing. In So Cal, we did not hear of the term kickstand, ever. Jnaki As anyone can see, a long chrome pipe under the door on a lowered(Cal Rake) is the lowest point, sometimes lower than the legal rim. My brother had a set put on his 51 Oldsmobile Sedan when he first got the car in 1956. They looked cool and were actually hooked up to the down tube of the exhaust manifold. Uncap the end and it sounded like a choked dog rattling on about food or something. It did not sound like a dragster at Lion’s Dragstrip. The lowered Olds now had a lower item to scrape the dips and bumps in the road, let alone drive into the drive-in theaters humps and roads. The odd thing was they did not last long, once he got his car lowered in back and front for a mild Cal rake. A couple of scrapes was enough to sell the pipes to a friend who modified it to fit a different car. The friend that bought the pipes did not have a lowered car. These side pipes made his car "look" lower as the chrome exhaust pipes were the normal pipe diameter, but chromed with caps. My brother also had Traction Master Bars and now those were the lowest point on the Cal Rake lowered sedan. They hit on the biggest bumps, but were a needed item for better acceleration and traction. Note: Fairly current, daily driver version of chromed side pipes, So Cal style. kickstand:@jimmy six
I had a set on my 40 sedan, and got tons of compliments on them. I picked up another set a couple years ago, for a future project, and they are not for sale... I rarely ever see them and it's wild I found 2 sets. I suppose if you're a fabricator they can be made quite easily. I am not a fabricator.
I know you dont want to sell them, but you should sell them to me so i can put them on my 39 sedan, instead of having to make some for it like the Varmint had!
I had never heard of them until @Dan Hay got them and put them on his sedan. They had to grow on me a bit, but I do like them now and still think Dan should have kept the Varmit. Great car other than you might cough a while after riding in it for 100 miles or so as the dirt blew around. Fun times!
For the record I think Lynn Wineland or Gray Baskerville were the first to use the term that I remember
LOL I've never heard of them either... but "sneaker plugs" is new to me too. I musta been living under a rock or something
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