Those of us that were teenagers back when Hot Rodding was in it’s infancy probably all have a different picture of what things were like back them. And we should being from different parts of the country. But here’s a little bit of what I remember bout Smithy.
In the early 60’s I had a ’60 Biscayne w/Fenton headers. I worked as a counter man at a auto parts store at the time and we handled Walker mufflers, so it was the logical choice for me. I ran the Walker, Cherry Bomb style steel pack mufflers on my 235 and later on my 261. I don’t think they really packed any steel in them because they were LOUD! Yep they would rattle windows fo sho and the neighbors teeth cuz they sure complained about them enough. But, back then I needed a lot of attention!
Of course a lot of the guys ran the glass pack, Smithy’s and they had a mellower tone than the steel packs. If I remember correctly they didn’t have “Smithy’s” embossed in the wrapper back then, it was just an inexpensive plane Jane glass pack muffler as I recall.
http://www.pertronix.com/exhaust_products/smithy.htm We didn’t have the choice of vendors that are available today. Back then many of the hot rod items were purchased the few jobbers like JCWhitney. So there was a good chance that you would have bought your Fenton headers and “Smithy’s mufflers from ”JCWhitney, mostly because they had the best prices on items to soup up your six. Interestingly you can still buy Smithy’s from JCWhitney, for $60 to $70, but is see JEGS, Summit and a few others sell the same Patriot Smithy’s for $30 to $33, now what’s this world coming to!
Now we jump forward to the present and I don’t need as much attention as I did in the 60’s, and I kind of like the good old sound of the stock muffler, that is if there is such a thing still made. Who said you can buy a stock muffler from FLAPS for an AD truck??? Part Numbers always help.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
