No muff to tuff

I was wondering what is the most nostalgic sounding muffler out there. With all the exhaust companies out there. There has got to be one that sounds like what was used back in the 60's. I know there wasn't any 2 chamber Flowmasters belching down the street.


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The best I used were real cherry bombs then came the Thrush mufflers. Both sounded good.

 

Back when, I loved the sound of the blue Walker Continentals. IIRC, Summit has them

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I've always wondered what the street sounded like. Today they all sound the same ole chambered style sound. Kinda annoying, in my opinion.


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my buddy had a 54 ford with walker mufflers .highway patrol stopped us ,said your car is to loud . he stated they were walker silencers . the highway patrolman said silencers my ass.

 

Porter Mufflers or Brockman Mellow Tones sound the most authentic in my opinion.

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I ran a porter on my '38 Buick. Sounded good n' mellow with the strait-8. Same muffler the company has been making since the golden age. I've already got a couple more porters waiting in the wings for my trucks.

And they are an Alliance supporter.


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Yep, Put some flowmasters on a car once. Never again... Too quiet for me.

I'd go with thrush or cherry bombs

 

Porters!

 

All cars with the flowmasters on them sound alike bigblock or smallblock.

 

You can always go on youtube and crank up your speakers and check out different brands used with various engines.

 

Brockman Mellowtones. You can get them in a bunch of differetn lengths, with fiberglass, steel or no packing. They really sound like the old steelpacks!

 

I despise the sound of Flowmasters. I'd rather be stock. In my day, the best of the best was always Thrush. You could tell the difference and they lasted a long time. With an equalizing tube they "clean up" nice too. No longer available though. I haven't even seen any for sale, but I really haven't looked either.

Related story, we did an overnight install of an Olds big block in a 60s Ford PU. The guy neglected to get mufflers for the new exhaust and the parts stores were closed. "Son, you and Ronny go muffler shopping." We hopped in Dad's truck and hit the I-75 freeway. In just a few miles we picked up 3 different glasspacks from the shoulder. I used to have box full of different kinds but they're all gone now.

 

Porters...had them on my 39 cpe back in the 50s..cant be beat for sound

 

Thanks for the replies. Glad to know that some companies are still geared toward the true Hot Rodders.


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I think you can still buy Thrush at Autozone. My old man just picked up a set for his K30 truck.

 

Thanks 'kees, I know there's a product with the name and the iconic logo. However, the ones I'm talking about were the size of the bullet type glasspacks. They had a rolled edge on the body, were straight through, the silencing was done with a combination of metal chambers and packing. Nothing else sounded like a 60s/70s Thrush straight-thru. They also seemed to sound especially bitchin on big block Mopars like 383s and 440s as well as the hipo offerings from AMC back in the day. The last car I had them on was a *cough-cough* Camaro conv pace car. Here's a pic from a quicky search...

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=432159

 

You're not referring to the old "turbo mufflers" are you? Those had chambers and packing inside and were HUGELY popular through the late 60's and 70's.

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Nope, the straight thru type. Like a 4" can design. I put a link to a picture, and i really do miss that sound. I can't be the only one...

 

Back in '55, my brother had a '53 Ford coupe with headers and TruTones. Every now and then he'd let me borrow it. All you had to do was "breath" on the throttle and it would start that Wop-Wop-Wop sound. I haven't heard anything like it in years. My Brockmans behind my Flathead don't even come close.

 

The first Hot Rod muffler was the Smithy's, they started in the late 1920's. And they are still made today. In the early 1960's the packing was changed from steel shavings to this new stuff called Fiberglass Packing by then owner of the company 3 time AMBR winner Ermie Immerso. We continue to make them that way to this day and they still sound great.

 

Whether its true or not a buddy of mine told me he used to buy the Smithy's, stand it up on one end and fill it with kerosene and burn the fiberglass out of it.

 

Yep, my dad said the same thing! Evidently, they thought it would fool Johnny Law into thinking they actually had mufflers, but it never worked out that way.

 

HAHAHA my buddy that did it was a NY state trooper!

 

My Walker glass packs lost any appeal a few weeks ago when we were towing with my ride...after 3 hours at 2400rpm we were happy to shut 'er down. Quiet exhaust is going on this winter.

 

Thats funny because the flowmaster 40 series on my caddy wraaap out the back like a set of thrush straight throughs when floored. You would think I have glasspaks on it. The duals snake through the X frame and I think the angles in the pipes make it happen. 40 series on the Buick with straight line pipes do not sound the same as the caddy, so there is more than just the muffler that controls the sound.
Different engines sound different as well, I ran thrush straight throughs on a 400 SB chevy that sounded great, put them on a 396 and they were obnoxiously loud.

 

I can't stand the Cherry Bombs on my coupe right now, the seem high pitched an not mellow. I can't really explain it but it doesn't sound good to me.

 

Yep, it's true. A rosebud tip on oxy/acetylene works even better. Quicker, less danger and less mess.

My '27 T Roadster build: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t= 734383

 

Back in the day when we wuz poor we ran straight thru flexpipe. When I had the 50 chev convert with the hopped up 270 jimmy I wanted it be be kind of a sleeper so I ran truck mufflers. When Uncle Sam requested my presence I had my brother put straight pipes on for one last ride thru the drive in. You could hear that puppy coming for miles. When I got home I told him to put the mufflers back on.

 

I use to make a fire an burn out glass packs as well. Just some cheap ones from a local parts house. Love hearing these stories.


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