The original Porters were not packed with steel wool, they were packed with shavings from a lathe or milling machine. They were made this way up until about the 90's sometime (they were made a mile from my house by Dave and then his son Clark Babler) When I wanted mufflers for my Corvette, my Impala and my 40 I told Clark that I wanted them packed with shavings just like the ones made from the 30's thru the early 90's. He told me that if that was what I wanted I had to bring my own shavings and pack them myself. So that is exactly what I did....
Thing with Porters (or any with the internal spring) I thought the idea was to kind of make them less objectionable when just tooling around around so they have a nice burble, so as not to scare the womenfolk and horses. They kinda seem to work like that, but they open up when getting on it.
I have a set of smitys on my edsel. There installed at the very back, behind the rear end. Sound great, no drone or load interior noise.
The Jalopy Journal
