by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
This is the first of many blogs about the different things I am going to do the new toy I have, a 1971 VW Beetle. I told the story of how I got the new car in this blog.
The day after I brought the car home I got insurance on it (liability) and started looking for my first modification to the car… a new muffler. There was no muffler on it, just one of those big tail pipes that makes your head rattle when you drive it down the freeway. I know its all macho and all but I’d prefer the more traditional muffler sound (and look).
The car has had quite a bit of modification when I bought it… OK, a lot of modification. The car was slightly lowered, the windows tinted, a new paint job (think ZZ top), and what looks like a totally re-done motor. I looks like the in the not too distant past the ar was really fixed up (in certain areas). The window seals look redone as well as newer seats (which should be replaced at some point).
The muffler I found was on JC Whitney. This is a very big company that deals with car parts and specializes in VWs. The website is huge and they have everything… except most everything they sell you is always out of stock. I got disgusted with the whole thing and canceled the order (muffler, kit, tailpipes, kit, and a couple of window handles). I did keep the window handles. Well, on that Friday I had to go into Fort Worth for work so I went to this place near downtown called Automotive Machine & Supply Inc. They specialize in import parts and carry a lot of stuff on site. I got everything I ordered on JC Whitney (plus some fuel line for the Super). True I paid a lot more (they were real German parts and not the cheaper Mexican made parts) but I had it all right then and there.
I had my coworker and sometimes According To Whim actor Eric come over and help me swap out the ‘performance exhaust’ with the stock muffler. It was all going well until we tried to mount the muffler. There were some custom stuff done to the motor including a real oil filter that sits in the way of the muffler. We had to take a hammer to the muffler to get it to ‘all get along’. It took about two hours to get it all in but it was getting too late to wrestle the tail pipes on. We went ahead and started up the car to see how loud it was. Surprisingly it sounded basically the same as the big pipe UNTIL we put the tail pipes in. They immediately silenced the loudness. It was amazing the difference those little pipe make.
I will take the time to get the tail pipes on at a later date then I can move along to the next project… not sure what that is right now but I will keep you posted.