Hollow Thrush Mufflers (vintage?)

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dibbons

dibbons

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Does anyone remember the aftermarket Thrush muffler model advertised in the 1970's as long lasting because it had NO fiberglass packing (just louvers, I guess). I installed them on a new 1971 383 Roadrunner and found:
a) At idle they seemed twice as load as the factory mufflers, but not too loud.
b) Cruising at 70 mph (3000 rpm) they were QUIET.
c) At full throttle they were LOUD. In fact, a friend watching (and listening) me bracket race the stock 383 at Freemont Raceway circa 1972 told me he had no problem hearing me race alongside competitors with open headers. I also used to enjoy sneaking up behind high school classmates (girls) walking to school, popping the slapstick into neutral, blipping the throttle to 5000 rpm or so, and watch them jump straight up into the air!
d) After driving the car for a couple of years with no tickets, it was sold to a friend for $2,000. (I know, stupid). The new owner soon received a ticket for excessive noise and was obligated to replace the stock mufflers.
 

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I had them on different cars over the years , but when I got past 20 they were discarded for newer technology.

Have you seen what they want for those old thrush mufflers now , even the used ones.

They are asking over $100 plus shipping on ebay and getting it.

Was looking for one to hang in my garage but waiting on a deal
 
Did you guys stick the pink bird on your quarter windows? My cuda had the thrush bird, the luv my hooker headers, holley equipped, STP, and a tire looking powered by Plymouth.
That was late 70s. I run those mufflers till they rusted completely in two and I remember blowing the baffle right out the outlet once. Had to stop and pick it up to stuff it back in. I'm surprised any of them survived.
Thrush were very cool in the day and could be bought at the 5 and dime in a half a dozen different sizes.
Cool to see now days, brings back some fun memory's.
How about the smoke tinted vinyl plymouth sun shade for the windshield and the prism cuda sticker on the back glass.
I wonder how many times I resprayed the headers white or hours I spent polishing the e-t slots.
 
My '74 Duster has a pair of the Thrush stickers on the Quarter Windows (I transplanted '70-72 Windows into the car, simply to gain the Metal/Chrome Handles and those windows had Thrush stickers on them)

The Irony of it was, I was running Thrush style "Mufflers" on it. A Pair of Louvered "Glasspacks" (If you could even call them Glasspacks). Paid about $11 each for them (new) in 2006 (still cost about $11 today), 12" Overall length, 2.5" Inlet/Outet.


I have a pair of vintage Thrush's on my '73 6-71 Blown 340 Duster, and I pulled into a parking lot one day and the guy in the parking space beside me says "Well you sure wouldn't be able to sneak up on anyone with that car." :D With the Rumble of the 340 and the Whine of the Blower, it definitely makes its presence known
 
I remember running the standard glass packed Thrush like the ones in the pic above but never saw any that didn't have packing. When I turned 16 in 1980 I quickly cut off the stock muffler and put a Thrush glass pack on it. May have only been single exhaust but that 383 still talked pretty good. Thrush glass packs were always my choice as they had the best low rumbly sound and they were dirt cheap. My local Western Auto sold them for $11 if I remember right. When they went out of business in 88 they had an auction and me and a buddy cleaned house. I bought a truck load of brand new brake shoes and water pumps for about $20 and he bought every Thrush muffler they had (40-50 if I remember right) for $20. We made enough money to cruise and party hard all summer on that deal
 
Thush mufflers never freekin' had enough metal in them to last long enough to become "vintage." They were junk. Absolute junk. All you had to do, back then, and I did, was to take a Thrush in one hand and balance it on your hand, arm extended to get a feel of the WEIGHT.

Then take just about any other muffler in your opposite hand and ATTEMPT to do the same thing!!!
 
On a side note I had a 70 coronet R/T 440 six pack back around 1979 and it had two of the thrush mufflers which exited in front of the rear tires.

Had a neighbor who was about 8 years older than me and was a sadistic bully to me all the time when I was younger.

He bought a house around the corner from his dads and it was on my route home , there were other ways home but this was the most direct.

He had a large picture window in his front room .

So one day he comes over while I working on the car and says that picture window is getting vibrated by my cars exhaust when I drive by and could I not come that way home.

I didn't drive by his house to rattle his window on purpose and hadn't even thought about it.

Well after remembering him being a sadist bully to me years earlier I made it a point to drive by his house as much as possible with the car in low gear at round 5000 rpm.

Felt good to pay him back
 
i absolutely love these mufflers and ran them on everything( even though they did not last long) i owned until they stopped making them. and i would run them on my current dart if i could find a set reasonably priced
 
67Dart273 said:
Thush mufflers never freekin' had enough metal in them to last long enough to become "vintage." They were junk. Absolute junk. All you had to do, back then, and I did, was to take a Thrush in one hand and balance it on your hand, arm extended to get a feel of the WEIGHT.

Then take just about any other muffler in your opposite hand and ATTEMPT to do the same thing!!!
Click to expand...


Back in the 70's there weren't many performance mufflers , the thrush were cheap and did help performance.

In their day they were the best alternative short of going open headers.

And so what they were light that doesn't mean they didn't work:finga:
 
I remember a Thrush Muffler ad that had a picture of a single Thrush and said "MONO"
Then below it showed a pair of Thrush Mufflers and "OR STEREO?"
Yeah I was brought up in the era. Their claim to fame was they didn't burn out like "Cherry Bombs", because they didn't have fiber glass in them.
 
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