Depends on the car. Low, smooth, sleek, in my opinion should be quiet like a new car. An edgy full of bad attitude, kustom, full of skulls, wicked sharp edges, ect. Can be loud and have a bit of cam.
I like to here a soft rumble through big cans, so it sounds like there is a healthy engine in it. Not a cammed up, hard to idle race motor.
Your car, you have to live with the sound of the engine presumably you built or changed. Also presumably you picked the exhaust system to sound the way "you" wanted it to sound... Why care what others think, it's your...car..! Unless you built the car for someone else.... Mike
Depends on what you are shooting for. early customs say late '30s through the very early '50s were hot rods of sorts. They idea was to take a mediocre low dollar American car and make it appear to be a high end car most of which had a lot more engine than say a '37 Ford. So you would want it to rumble. In the '50s straight pipes were in vogue. Some of the earlier to mid '50s cars even had functional lakes/side pipes. Multiple carbs and lots of under hood chrome was also a big deal especially for daily driven "customs". it was not until the '60s when low riders were becoming more popular that customs became low and slow. Even then Smithy's and glass packs were still popular in customs. The phrase, "All show and no go" was also a popular phrase among hot rodders and street custom builders alike. it came from the fact that show cars often had gutted engines. The custom guys did not want to fall into that no go category and sound was a way to find it off. I don't think that the sound of a full on dragster engine or even an ultra healthy street engine is what you are after though. A healthy rumble is good, the staccato bark of a high revving (and ill idling) small block is what you are after if you are basing the custom on sound alone.
In my opinion, a car should sound like what it is. Mixed metaphors should be avoided at all cost. So, an elegant custom should sound, well, elegant. A blown hot rod-style custom should sound loud and aggressive. A raked mild street custom should sound healthy and stealthy. But a loud, blown hot rod motor in an elegant custom? Never. Just my $.02.
I want a healthy SB, its a heavy car, just trying to figure out my components so that its built appropriately. High compression 9 1/2.1 or 10.1, 'RV' cam, full flow exhaust, quiet mufflers. Done.
Hopefully you built it for you. That being said, my avatar car would have been perfect when I was in high school with the 12" Brockman Mellotones but for a 72 yr old a little loud. Do like the rap on the backdown from around 3,00 rpm though. I built this one as I would have in'59.
my 51 merc is very mild custom flatty motor so I run porters on it sounds nice. my 41 olds coupe is high horsepower chevy I run cherry bombs on it.
Low no lumpy without a cam rumble...JMO. I saw a beautiful 50 Mercury several years ago at a show and was bowled over with how smooth the body was and the chop looked great and the Sombrero's just screamed cool 50's custom ...until I walked behind the car. This great looking custom was pro street with huge rear tires and when he cranked it it sounded like a pro street dragster. One word about the Merc....CONFUSED! HRP
good, throaty, but not too loud. You want the girls to want to ride with you don't you? Most of the ones I've seen have been glasspacks and stock manifolds. Y blocks and Flatheads sound great this way. I like the sound of the Magnaflows on my 59, but it is far from a custom.
I shot a beautiful '51 for a magazine in the '90s. At least it was beautiful from about 50 feet. The stance was perfect, the chop couldn't be smoother if Sam Barris had done it. Up close it had a flip nose, 454 with a 2x4 and 3" dumps with flame throwers. Fortunately I didn't have to figure out how to write the article. On the other hand I helped a little with the restoration of the Fade Away, built by Westergard. Under the hood it had a full house 21 stud flatty. I learned a lot about customs of the later 30s and early '40s when I was round that car. All customs should be a hot rod of sorts, but not to the point of confusion. One must remember before roe v wade abortion was illegal.
Just a low motorboat rumble that lets folks know it has some power but it isn't being obnoxious about it. My old 51 Merc that I ran a 350 R out of an Olds in had 2-1/4 inch pipes with long glasspacks that sounded great behind the car and great when you passed it on the road but you barely herd the pipes in the car while on the highway at highway speed.
There's something I always remembered from the late 50's/early 60's. You know when you're lying in bed late at night in the summertime & you hear in the distance some guy in a canyon racer type bike winding it up? Or, the sound of some guy in his fart can rice burner? Or, the brake retarders in a semi? Well, back then you would hear the rapping sound of some custom with glass packs winding it up in the late night air. That's melancholy. And that's the sound you want.
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