Here is the recent progress Ive made with the rear end conversion so far. I am not entirely sure of what Im doing so all suggestions and criticisms are welcome. The plan for now is to reuse the factory springs and factory panhandle bar along with truck trailing arms. Thanks for looking.
The geometry could get tricky with the length of those lower arms. You might get by welding some spring pads on the bottom of the axle housing.
I pretty much did the same setup to my 53 special. I did use 2x2 tubing and welded mounts to the rear end with tabs to keep it from turning. I drive the hell out of it and it works great! Good luck
Do you have pictures of how you used the welded mounts to keep the ubolts from turning. This isnt really the final set up, I am trying to mock everything up to get an idea of the lay out. Then measure, and measure it and measure it again, then get to tack welding.
What you need at the axle/truck arm junction is the equivalent of the spring pads on a conventional leaf spring rear suspension. The difference being, the truck arm pads are a bit longer and angled. They are available from various sources, but can also be fabricated fairly easily. They get welded to the axle housing once all the dimensions and pinion angle is set. By the way, overall what you have going there appears to be on track.......but one suggestion.... be sure you have the panhard bar level at ride height and you may want to remove the springs to mock that up. Get the axle at ride height in relation to the chassis, double check all your key alignment references and then tack weld the panhard mounts and truck arm forward brackets in place. Good job! Ray
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I am actually starting to rethink the suspension, and might be switching to parallel 4 link design for the rear... Ordered some axle perches from Hot Rods to Hell, those should do well in holding the ubolts straight. Going to keep going with the truck arm suspension for now because it is more fitting to my wallet!
If you will look at the Chev. pickup rear setup that those trailing arms seem to have come off of you will see how this was originally done. It is a very strong rear suspention, strong enought for a truck and they rode like a Caddy. Thier problem was ground clearance of those arms on the truck which isn't a problem on a sedan like yours. Keep it, it will work well for you. Just do it the same way that it was done in the original Chevy pickup. Dave. PS Get the shock brackets from the Chevy while you're at it, it will save you a lot of work.
Dave, good call on the Chevy shock brackets, I will look for those. But now I'm considering replacing the springs with airbags... I think this is about what the ride height will be. This set the pan handle bar almost perfectly. I'm thinking I have almost all the parts necessary to finish the trailing arm suspension so I'll stick to it and try the 4 link on the next project.
While I find the term "Pan Handle Bar" endearing, and may use it myself in the future, the correct term is "Panhard Bar" which derives from the French car "Panhard" ...the 'h' is silent....... I love what you are doing (not so much the air bag idea) and think you will be well pleased with the results. Carry on! Ray
Progress on the trailing arm cross member that will go inside the xmember of the buick. Hopefully will have someone do the welding over the weekend
There is a company in the Phoenix area called Porterbuilt that makes some nice suspension stuff for the 60's GM trucks. Some of their parts(as well as other trucks companies) might be helpful to you.