And they are available polished! I used 22"s on my PU, I have yet to install my tail pipes though and a friend the other day said while I was moving the truck that he thought it was open headered, it was that loud. Full tail pipes make a huge difference! If I think about it, I will get some video of the truck running with and W/O tail pipes. I think it will be quite shocking the difference.
I have a tail of two vehicles, that may help you decide. Vehicle #1: 1951 Ford F-1 powered by a 351W. Shorty headers, 2.5" exhaust with off the shelf 22" stainless glasspacks, and split-Y tips. Motor has an Edelbrock cam, stock iron heads, and runs 8.5:1 compression. This truck sounds great. Not too loud, good rumble, with a bit of that small block scream in the upper RPM range. Vehicle #2: 1962 Mercury Monterey Wagon. 352FE, shorty headers, 2.5" exhaust with the same off the shelf stainless glasspacks as the '51, all out through Bellflower tips. Motor has an Elgin cam, Aluminum heads, and runs about 9.5:1 compression. This combo was VERY loud. Like set car alarms off driving through town loud. State Patrol chases you down loud. I could only stand it for a couple of months before the glasspacks got replaced by larger oval cased, glass filled mufflers that toned it down quite a bit. I am not sure what made the Merc so much louder when everything else was very similar to the F-1. Same engine displacement, similar compression and power output (the 351W is actually a bit stronger on the top end). The only thing I can come up with is choking the exhaust pipe down for the bellflower tips essentially caused a venturi effect which acted like a megaphone.
As a side note, I am running a 2" balance tube. This cuts the racket a lot. I'm also going to wrap most of the system in heat webbing. This also helps to take out a lot of the "tinny" sound. I was eyeballing some bends and I think I can get over the rear with a bunch of mandrel bent stuff which also helps a bit being somewhat convoluted. Straight runs are always the loudest. Turning the ends down helps a lot. The way my rear sets I'll have a good 14" to the street at the output point so I won't be kicking up a lot of dust and dirt on most surfaces. Pa. scrub law doesn't count exhaust in the scrub line law but I don't want to be fixing it every two weeks so I'm trying to maintain 4" everywhere which is still a bit low but workable. I can throw a longer glaspac under the trans crossmember but it would be close. If I keep it to pipe under there It takes 3" which still gives me my road clearance. The best I could do with a muffler under there is 4 1/2" which is shy of my road clearance. 1 1/2" makes all the difference. I'm also toying with perhaps running a 12" glaspac up front and an 18" pac behind the crossmember, Kinda' like a long glaspac just split. It would be weird but it would definitely work, at least size wise. That would most certainly kill more noise than a single muffler.
Explaining my original post, I have a good bit of experience with glasspacs, steelpacs, and turbo mufflers but no experience with Flowmaster chambered mufflers. Lots of good info in this thread. I'm leaning toward the split glaspacs. Too bad they don't make "Racketbusters" anymore. My Dad used them as a quick fix when the law got testy on the straight pipes on his flatty powered '34. They were just a short glasspac with a chrome shell that went on the back of the pipe. Actually worked as well as a Supertrap but looked a little nicer. .
I had a set of Flowmasters on my daily driver '66 Chevy truck (stock 350 with headers) for 17 years. They were installed prior to my buying the truck, so I didn't know much about them other than some guarantee was in the glove compartment. I must say that the were very mellow & not in the least bit obnoxious. Interestingly, although I did go through a set of headers & some flanges & such, the actual exhaust pipes lasted the whole duration of my ownership. I think the pipes were made of aluminized steel (??) & rust was not an issue.
I removed the annoying Flowmaster 40's off my gasser and swapped 24" glasspacks on it, and the difference was amazing! Much more mellow and not the annoying drone at around 2500 rpm's and higher.
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