I recently purchased a 4" drop straight front end for my '46 Ford coupe.....I installed it and heated and bent the hub steering arms to accommodate the steering control arm.......When I took it down off the jack the car doesn't looked lowered at all! I did noticed that my buggy spring is wrapped in a metal jacket. It was replaced because someone tried to lower the front the old fashioned way and heated the spring ends. They became brittle and one side snapped....What should I do now to try and lower the stock front end? Should I remove 2 or 3 leafs? I did replace the stock shocks with modern shock absorbers. Are they keeping the front end from dropping? Thanks Mike
That 4" dropped axle wouldn't be of the '42-'48 type, would it? Comparative measuring between a stock and dropped one of that vintage actually correlates to 2-7/8" drop. Distance between king pin and spring hanger boss is closer than horseshoes' scores. Do look at shackles' angles, also. If the '48 capped spring was used with an earlier axle, the spring will be splaying the shackle angles outward, and spring will be bound up from its arc. Low crossmember is also a mean culprit in these cars. Dips so low that it would take a flat spring to drop it...flattening the member is the best bet.
First jump up and down on the front of the car. If nothing happens I would remove 3 smaller leaves and see what that does. Unfortunately it's gonna be a trial and error deal until you get some rake. Sometimes gas shocks will keep the drop partially from happening. You could have a new main leaf made with reversed eyes. That can get you about an inch more drop. And then there's always smaller Diameter tires for up to 2 inches more drop. Good luck.....
I LOOKED AT ONE OF FAT JACK'S, '46, he put in a straight piece of u-shaped channel. with a stock spring and axle, as I recall. your shocks can hold it up..take shock loose. and take a look.
Mine was lowered in the mid 50's old school. No way I would recommend this, but apparently the PO got lucky on this one. Rake is just about right inmyarrogentopinion.
A 4" dropped axle will only get you about 2" of additional drop. That is because the stock axle is dropped about 2" from the factory. So, I would get a Speedway catalog and order a dropped reverse eye Posie spring. The you can install lengthened shackles, But you should only go 1" over stock, other wise the car will handle poorly and sway. You didn't mention whether your car still has the flathead in it. If it does, you will not be able to modify the front cross member because of the flatheads pan design. If your car has a Chevy in it , you can cut the top out of the cross member and move the spring 2 inches up in the cavity. Then of course weld in a new cross member top. The axle will get you 2". the spring 1-2 inches, the shackles 1", and the cross member modification 2". That's 6-7 inches dropped. I have a 48 sedan, and that's what I did. Steers, rides, and drives great.
Yea, gas shocks might be the culprit, I'd like to try and remove a couple of leafs but my front buggy spring is wrapped in metal with zerk fittings! Do you know if it's out of a truck or convertible?
^^^^^^^^ On my 47 I have a dropped crossmember and an old dropped axle(i think its a two inch not a four) BTW my 47 is for sale!!!!!
14" wheels look weird on these cars. Cut the Crossmember to drop it and use original 16x4 ford wheels.
You should reconsider the 14" inch wheels they just won't look good. You can get away with 15" maybe with the right bias ply tires but 14"'s will look wrong.
Mine has 15 inch rims- reverse eye spring from Speedway and the new spring actually raised the car- rides really good as is so I'm not messing with it-
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