i was just wondering, after a long convo. with my pops, about thrush mufflers. i know they are still around, i think, but he told me that thrush was all the rage in the late 60's-late 70's. i never heard any thrush mufflers. are they good or was it just the best at the time?

 

I have a Thrush cat back system on my car and I like it. The Thrush company was bought out several years ago by either Dynomax or Flowmaster (forget which).
Their turbo and glasspacks were about the best made at the time (60's-70's). I doubt you'll find anything being made under the thrush name any more.

 

Ah, another trip down memory lane...

Hush Thrush, Purple Hornies - I had a pair of Thrush glasspacks on the '57 in 1972 (much better than Cherry Bombs). When I went headers/header mufflers, I converted my brother's '66 Impala SS 327 to duals and welded the mufflers in there. The performance increase over the factory single was incredible.

The stuff available today is sooooo much better.

 

It was Dynomax, and they are still around:

http://www.dynomax.com/thrush.stm

 

yeah i was just wondering cuz my dad was talking bout the things he did to his showroom floor 73 duster when he bought it. after he bought it he tore the brand new motor down, 340 cui, and put some goodies on it and my grandma supposedly had a fart, i mean heart attack.

 

Ahh, the original Thrush muffler, a tin can with pipes crimped on each end. That with Purple Hornies & Cherry Bombs made up the major players of the performance muffler game of the early seventies. A few years later after the Corvair Turbo muffler craze got going, & the Hush Thrush & Cherry Bomb Q came out. The stuff today is waaay better in both quality & performance. The original Thrush in it's day, could be had for less than $10 & could be blown apart with a single backfire.

 

I took off the dual outlet muffler on my car and stuck one of their $20 Thrush Glasspacks in there. It makes a 305 get a deep rumble at idle. Granted, it's pretty quiet with that cat ahead of it, but you can hear the deep tone and gargling. I now have a single dump sleeper. It's still slow, but they think it's a V6. Until I get on it and it starts howling. I don't think I've actually heard it before when it drives by. LOL

 

look in summt , they got thrust glasspack..not sure on the price, cant find my summit catalog

 

The Summit p/n's for the Thrush products begin with "WLK". That tell you anything?

Don't look like the '70's Thrush products, either. More like Cherry Bombs. Nothing bigger than 2-1/2" inlet/outlet.

Love the purple woodpecker, though.

 

yeah the bird is awesome. this was before my time so i was just wondering if they were the ideal muffler/exhaust like my dad said they were then in 73. he has the old ones off the duster at my grandmas house but they are rusted through so i cant hear how they sound.

 

Yup, the original Thrush was nothing but a tractor muffler with the purple woodpecker on it. And the ever so cool sticker for the rear quarter window, right next to the High Jackers airshocks decal. And since the car the mufflers were on had the rear bumper three feet in the air you could see the exhaust hanging under the car, everyone could see the flame from the backfire when you revve'd up that worn out 307 Chev or 289 FoMoCo product.

I am so glad those customizing fads went away!

Eric

 

My friend has Thrush Turbo on is 72 Nova, it sound great, very deep rumble, he has true duals = 2 mufflers. but he choosed to do turn down before the differential. he as a 307 with stock exaust manifold. (we think previous owner changed the car)

 

I have the thrush turbos on my old 78 Chevy pick-up. When the old exhaust fell off on the highway on me, I popped on those mufflers (I was in High School and had no money) because the price was like $17.

They were quiet and had a nice little deep tone with em. When Gas was 87 cents, I would let it idle a bit longer just to hear that nice tone.

Unfortunately 87 cent gas and that ol truck are gone... and life goes on... I think they lasted 5 years or so before the next owner put glasspacks on it.