Solid axle, with or without holes

Just getting ready to purchase a forged dropped axle from So-Cal for my '29 coupe project.
The question is which would you buy, with or without holes? It's a puzzler!

 

I've got one of their axles with no holes but it's going under a car with fenders. Do what ever you like as they are a serious heavy duty unit.

 

Since you asked what I'd buy, an original Ford axle, dropped.

 

I should have mentioned that this will be a fenderless hi-boy

 

Holes..That's what i am putting on my fenderless hi-boy. I like the look..

 

Holes for sure.

Don

 

Fender less go with the axle with the holes, axles with holes is traditional and as old as hot rods themselves.

CRUISER

 

Whats the cost split? Buy the plain one & drill it yourself

 

Me likes me some speed holes!

 

As long as it's forged you are OK with which ever one you pick. HRP

 

I'd recommend one of two axles, either an original Ford or a Chassis Engineering, Inc made in West Branch, Iowa. Solid American made forged products. If you decide to drill holes it's no big deal just time consuming.

 

HOT RODS got holes.

 

I'm looking to get one with holes this winter.

 

Holes for the hole shot

 

Without and drill them yourself so you can make the layout however looks good to you.

 

I wonder exactly how many ounces you can actually remove from a beam axle by drilling a bunch of holes? Anyone save the waste and weigh it before? Then there's the strength versus pot hole factor.

Looks aren't everything. A drilled axle sure is cool looking, but an "8" that's up is far better than a "10" that's hard down any day. And bugs are easier to remove from a chromed tube axle, IMHO. Gary

 

I would get the one with holes in it.

 

Moderately useful non-metric steel bar weight chart here -
http://www.freetechnicalcharts.com/media/BAR_WEIGHT.pdf

 

Yep. 296V8 here on the HAMB has done 3 for us. Just looks right IMO.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=614475

Fixed a 32 heavy for my brother. Had bad spring shackle wear on top of the axle, it was bent too. My brother told Greg he just wanted it to look like a nice stock axle. Not only did he fill the wear marks and the bend and the camber, he put the forging parting line back in on the top of the axle!! Great work.

 

I drilled an axle with (12) 7/8 holes. It's been awhile but if memory serves me correct it saved about 2 pounds on the axle.

 

Today it's more of a decorative thing than weight savings. That's how it started but do you really care about 2 Lbs? I'm an 'original parts snob." I dislike reproduction parts that can be identified as reproduction from 20 feet. JMHO What is the cost of buying a Henry dropped axle? If it is close it's a no-brainer for me. I drilled my first dropped beam axle when everybody else was buying Superbell tube axles 40 years ago.

 

Holes if it shows!

 

ford w/holes

 

I looked at the price of the So-Cal axle with the holes, and without.

I said hell for that many $ I can drill my own holes

So I bought the undrilled version and did so. Details are on my 26 RPU build thread.

 

I like holes but I have seen them without holes that I like just as well. From an engineering standpoint it is really six of one or half a dozen of the other, it will not make any difference in the operational strength or not enough to make any difference that you will ever notice. So it just comes down to what you prefer.

 

Has anyone ever filled the holes with coins or brass plugs? I wonder how that would look?

 

Holes for me

 

As others have said, buy the plain axle and drill it to your own preference. I like my old Ford parts, but the new forgings are hard to beat for the price. The last 4 or 5 old Ford drop axles that I have picked up were worn, bent, or just plain ugly. If I wanted to have an original axle that had been dropped, I would bypass the swap meets and just use on of the vendors that advertise on here. It seems as they have lots of happy customers.

My .02,
Mitch

 

I hemmed and hawed over the same thing when I replaced the front end on my coupe. In the end I decided to go with the So-Cal one w/o holes since it's got fenders, but sometimes I wish I'd gone with the holes !!!???

 

I'm running a Chassis Engineering axle. Keep in mind...those suckers are THICK, probably 5/8" thick in the web. I did mine on a mill with a end mill carbide cutter and it still took me a good 2 hours.