How close is the gas line supposed to be to the exhaust... mine is like 2 inches.. that seems really close! the exhaust dumps behind the tires.. right where the gas line comes out of the tank... anyone?

About the same for me.

Replaced the rubber portion of the line (20 plus years old) and it was still OK.

Don't forget, there is more heat under the hood and where the fuel line goes by the exhaust on the passenger side manifold.

Wouldn't worry about it.

At one time I had considered a heat shield for that location, but then thought how much air flows by the line keeping it cool.
I have 2.5" exhaust pipes and haven't had any issues..

I was a little bit concerned about how close the fuel line was to the tailpipe as well so I put a piece of header wrap around it and used a SS band clamp on the tailpipe where it was closest. Probably don't actually need it but it gave me a little piece of mind. You can't see it unless you stand on your head and it doesn't hurt a thing.

X2 on the header wrap. I’ve got an electric pump back there which is close to the exhaust so I used header wrap.