A buddy on another board has been prototyping a new version of the old Thrush mufflers. They look pretty good... he's trying to gauge interest to see if he should look into a production run. He makes other kinds of mufflers already.. I have nothing to gain by doing this, but thought they would be an interesting item. Here's what he was saying on the other board: "Who would be interested in 2.5" & 3" flowpath versions of an almost identical design to the old round Thrush mufflers? These would have body lengths of 18", & would be built with the "Tuna can" style (spun-locked) ends. These would be 5" diameter though, not 4" like the old Thrush mufflers. These would also flow a lot better because of the larger core design. Target retail around $65.00 per muffler. These would not be all painted up like the Thrush though - they would be aluminized steel. They can be built with packing, or without. I believe the old Thrush mufflers did NOT have packing." I know I liked the old Thrush cans, they had a distinctive sound... whatchoo think? Any feedback?
If I owned a junky '76 Monte Carlo with a stock smoking worn out motor and air shocks raising the rear far enough to clear L-60 tires on deep offest rims I would be all over that. Otherwise, not so much. (I don't remember ever seeing them on anything nice back in the day.)
Why not go the full monte and build them in stainless? Does anyone buy aluminized steel anymore? I understand that his tools are for mild steel but stainless is the way to go. $65 per muffler in mild steel is too much. And they won't sound the same if the dimensions aren't the same. With a larger volume, it will be most likely be deeper. With a larger pipe it most certainly will be deeper. If he's looking at packing, he should go with Owens Corning continuous strand roving. He can get a blower set up to put it in and it won't blow out later in life.
You obviously haven't seen my Satellite, minus the worn-out motor... We had them on several cars when I was younger... they sold millions, I'm sure they went somewhere. ----- The guy already makes mufflers, he has just been tinkering around with these. I think he's looking at the same basic design, only larger for improved flow...
Just because it's old, that doesn't make it cool. I think they proved that with some fancy paint and lots of advertising you can sell anything. They were junk cheap mufflers that rusted out overnight. In my memory bank they are right up there with wire basket wheels in cheesiness. If you like them because of their ads in the old magazines....cut out their ads and save the ads.
Oh God! You mean the wheels where the "spokes" attached to a solid chrome wheel? Next thing you know you will be attacking "HiJackers" and Lakewood traction bars...
Not sure about that one. My dad has them on his '32 flathead powered Tudor. Been on there for about 35 years. I agree, the paint scheme makes them a little cooler than most, but they also sounds pretty good for what it is. And knowing my pop, I'm sure they were the cheapest muffler he could get back in the day as well. He's even cheaper than me which is saying a lot. How a muffler sounds depends a lot on personal opinion I guess.
I thought that there was something similar already available... I am in the middle of a move, so I don't have any of my magazines available. Something like Hollywood Muffler, or some similar name? With "mellow tone"? The ad shows a tuna can muffler with musical notes dancing out. I dunno, I can't seem to find what I'm thinking of in a quick search. EDIT: Maybe I'm thinking of Smithy's...
Funny. I took the sticker from Pop's purchase and plastered in on my bike. I thought it was cool as well.
I agree! They may not be 50's traditional, but any of us that got our license in the 70's/early 80's had dreams of adding those or "Cherry Bombs" to our High School cruiser. A 2 door V-8 powered car with Thrush mufflers, "HiJackers", Lakewood traction bars and N50 15's on 8"-10" Cragars, would have put us on the top of the cool car list at school, whether we'll admit it now or not......
At my high school they went on every worn-out piece-o-crap Firebird, Camaro, Monte Carlo, Cutlass, etc. The hot setup was to cut your front pipes just under the firewall and bolt the Thrush (or Cherry Bomb, depending on which wrong part of town you were from) directly on so the ended just below the front seats. Then they'd jack the rear end WAY up so you could see them from behind. Then they'd drive around trying to impress everyone. Nothing like the sound of a car backfiring with those suckers on there. My guess is there have been millions of idiot 17 year-olds all over the U.S. who ponied up the few bucks to buy a pair. GREAT logo/decal. Yucky mufflers.
My next door neighbor had them on a 63 Chevy and I thought it sounded pretty cool... of course he had the exhaust ran all the way out the back with chrome tips. But our '70 Challenger had them with a set of turn-downs in front of the rear axle... and the rest of the Day 2 stuff.. N50's, traction bars, Cragars... life was good.
Maybe you guys are talking about a completely different set of Thrush mufflers, but I just bought a pair for $22 a piece. The red ones right?? They were cheap and Im broke dont judge. They even came with the old school stickers. Everyone and there mother sells them, in a couple different versions painted, stainless etc....
No not the welded spoke wheels...I'm talking about wire baskets which were chrome dished wheels with what looked like a wire Bar B Q grill insert to "simulate" wire wheels. They were cheap and cheesy. Sorry but the same terms come to mind about Thrush mufflers including the Hush Thrush that later copied the Corvair Turbo muffler when glass packs went out of style. They were trash too. I do prefer "Traction Masters" because they were the first but Lakewood made good stuff later. I don't try to bad mouth anything for sport but I do like to bring some reality to the discussion as seen through my eyes during that time. I'm not a lone with my opinion among my friends that were there also. A lot of people bought them but not too many went back for more unless they sold the car before they rusted out. It may not have been such a problem in California.
we didn't have as much of a rust-out problem, but i did have other issues. my 67 lemans spory had a single exhaust, but the y pipe was really long. i hacksawed the y out of it and bolted on (muffler clamps) a pair of the round mufflers. the cool thing about the thrush was that you could bend the inlet and outlet to fit. i added a couple of chrome scavenger pipes so the whole setup exited just in front of the rear wheels. unfortunately, sometimes i would drag a muffler enough that it would come off of the front pipe and i'd have to put it up on the curb and try to get it back together, usually on the way to school. no, i didn't have the money to have it welded together...
I ran one of those Thrush mufflers on my Dad's 1954 Willys CJ-3B with a bone-stock four-banger in it. I had to run three step-up pipe adapters to run that Thrush, since the stock Willys pipe diameter was so small! It was one LOUD sonofabitch! The muffler was directly below the driver's seat, and the exhaust exited right in front of the rear axle. You could literally hear me driving down the road a half-mile away!
There are alot of mufflers out there. Thrush, Smithys, Cherry Bombs, and lots more to choose from at reasonably low prices. Some are better quality than others, and most of the time the pricing reflects the quality. I'm always for supporting someone (especially a HAMBer) who has an old dea with a new twist, but I think your buddy would want to take a really good look at the market and communicate what it is that he would bring to the market, that isn't already out there. Also, $65 is alot to pay for an aluminized muffler. That price is Magnaflow territory, and they are all stainless with a lifetime warranty. I'm not trying to diss, just trying to provide a couple of data points for your friend.
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