Thanks for the picture of your dad's car I have a book called Sunday Sunday Sunday at beautiful Alton Dragway it was put out by Mike story last ones to own Alton drag $25 at the car cruise. You are correct Chris had a single run record of 204 miles an hour I see in this book wer Chris and Don had a grudge match 4 top speed bragging rights Don Garlits broke 200 miles an hour that day Carlos also had the best elapsed time with 8.79 and Chris's 8.80. That same day a Class B Roadster hit a tow truck in the pit area and injured three people. Don't know your dad's name but it's probably in this book if he ran out there, with maybe his timesheets lots of Fuzzy's newspaper articles and some old pictures a lot of the stuff from the racetrack burnt up in the barn fire in 75
Send me your dad's name and I'll look and see if he's in this book give me the approximate year. So yes the Greek had a faster run but that is the day Don Garlits made 200 mile per hour
55Phill-Good luck with your build. I thought by 39 all cheves were independent front end . If you have a straight axle it may have been converted. I used a saginaw power steering on my 39 ford with original axle. Works great ,nice to drive,worth the effort. I have observed that on many early torque tube cars the rear wheels are about an inch too far ahead???? I used a C. I. spring kit on mine and that centered the rear wheels. Rusty-nice 37-the perfect gasser! 55Phill-we want pics!
Thanks for the wishes Ford Coupe guy. From what I could find out the business Coupes came with straight axle. It has been upgraded to a truck straight axle I've got measurements from the kingpins and spindles and they measure for a truck, but the spring perches AR how they should have been riveted to the car and look like these 37 pictures I received. The rear axle seems quite a bit forward the tires were tucked way up in the fenders, when they put the 57 Pontiac rear in yep may have been moved forward there backyard version of altered wheelbase. I have looked into that chassis engineering rear leaf replacement kit and it seems with hangers and all shocks and everything seems to be a pretty good value, then I can get some decent tires centered in the wheel well. Leaving soon on a little trip, when I get back I'll try to get pics thanks for all the replies it's been very helpful.
The hole in the diff mounting pad has to be moved to get the wheels centred. My avatar pic has them where they need to be. Russell
Just a couple questions... I no post is a little old but ... I have a 38 tudor master deluxe with the knee action shocks. Are the frames the same? Can I keep the same steering box? Whats my best option for brakes? I'm hoping this would be an reasonable swap? Recently picked up a 39 axle with springs, spindles backing plates drums etc. But no shackles or mounts for shackles. Options welcome
frames are the same but you'd need the cast front shackle mounts for the frame horns and the rear spring shackle mounts,..or try to fabricate them...
Timely post as I just got to the end of my '39 Chev coupe gasser build. Or at least very close to the end! Having built a lot of gassers, and gasser clones, I wanted my '39 to not be nose bleed high, and also wanted it to be a good cruiser I could jump in and drive anywhere, no matter how far it might be. Mine is a Master Deluxe, so had the old knee action shocks, and A arms. That and the crossmember went away, and I replaced it with a '58 Chevy 1/2 ton truck I beam that I narrowed 5" and swapped to disc brakes. I'm using a Flaming River Vega box front side cross steer, rear side tierod. I'm using 29" springs I bought locally for under $100 a pair. They came from my local trailer supply, and all I did was knock out the nylon bushings, and replace them with bronze oilite bushings. I've used Speedway gasser springs sets on my last gasser, and there's no problem with them either. They'll likely be too stiff, but removing a leaf or two will get the ride better. Going too long on front springs will result in the front spring eyes sitting outside the body. I wanted to weld in the front bumper holes in my fenders, so sure didn't want to see spring mounts hanging out either! All my build pictures are in the link at the bottom of my reply. It started out with my '63 Falcon gasser build, and when I sold that car I used the same thread for my '39 Chev coupe build.
You can easily fabricate the mounts from steel. The issue will be the eyes on the springs. They use a threaded bushing, so shackles are tapered to fit that bushing. Best to pick up another pair of springs and forget using the '39 Springs. Fabricate your own spring mounts and shackles. Quicker, easier, and you wont have 82 year old springs that are work hardened.
Yes I think the springs are toast anyway. So that a givin. I am going to dig out the axle and start cleaning it up, and go from there. Thanks for the reply. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
How wide are your springs. And how are you finding the ride its giving you? I am looking for the same thing. Something that I can just drive. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
My springs up front are 1.75" wide. They came as a 5 leaf set, but I removed two leafs and they're 3 leaf per side now. It rides firm, but not rough. I've taken my car on a 1250 mile trip across states and enjoyed the ride a lot. Same for the rear. In the rear my car sat up like a stick bug originally, and I needed to lower it 5"-6" in the back. So I took the stock spring pack off, and disassembled it. Then used a carbide bit to drill a new center pin hole in the main leaf 2" back. I then took the stock '58 Chev truck front spring leaf pack, and used those to add to my main leaf. They're much flatter, so it dropped the rear almost enough. I welded a 1" box tubing piece to my spring perches to lower the rear another inch, and it got the final height I wanted.
Couple ways to go to make them 5 lug. Either later '49-'54 Chevy drums, or a conversion kit to swap to disc brakes and 5 lug. The kits mostly use GM calipers from the 70's, and then you'll need to also swap to a dual master cylinder and a proportioning valve to equalize braking.
A note here. Shocks work better straight up. A angle reduces their effectiveness, and the more the angle, the more ineffective they become. At enough angle they're almost not dampening travel at all. This is my shock mount setup. Just heavy wall box tubing fabricated, with one side cut open to allow the shock to sit inside. Straight up mounting position. Made up the lower bracket to sandwich under the U bolts. It's heavy angle with a shock stud welded to the inside of the angle.
The Jalopy Journal
