Technical lets see some rear sway bars in early fords

This is about as identical as can be to what I'll end up with.

 

In my case I have those things in my favor. These are also light cars, things are close, frames are X'd, engine and trans aid rigidity when all is new and stiff. I don't plan to "dive into corners" at all, if I gently enter a freeway ramp or a sweeping turn a rear bar will aid keeping the whole car flat. I have no dillusions of pro solo runs or high speed gymnastics.

 

As mentioned earlier in above participation I had tried to acertain why many front/rear kit stuff was front panhard, rear sway. Been thinking a lot about this and sipped some coffee looking and predicting and applied experience derived from the days of ladder bars, tubs, 4 links, etc. Lots of chassis building, but most focused on drag cars. Still, a lot of theorum has to apply when considering forces, load distribution and transfer, how and why certain things work as they do. I came to the conclusions I did using unrelated stuff too. The ideal scenario is both, front and rear sway bars, but for what I actually want out of the ride and handling goal I really think it'll be fine with just the rear. I'm modifying a 3/4" rear Mus(cough-cough)tang bar complete with all the hardware that I shagged for $20. I suppose I could have bought a Drake kit but shipped from Oregon to Mich adds cost, whether or not they had it (recently they didn't), and the fact I alread had spare sundry items and a unique need for tailpipe room in that area. My build thread shows the pains to get big tails hanging just below the rear fender but tucked in vs a Bellflower gig. I'm not willing to change that, a kit won't fit, and I can get it above the frame rail at rest to offer adequate room over the bends in the tails. But will it work? Sure. The front will get a panhard bar too, I have all I need and it'll lay even right behind the axle and be nice and long, about 37" I think from pivot to pivot. Ought to keep potential bump steer at bay (OEM cross steer) and aid control by limiting any side to side movements imparted by the shackle function while still allowing full travel. I picked some fairly heavy duty NAPA gas shocks once all the mountings were sorted and I had eye to eye dimensions.

These are my broad brush thoughts on the whole gig. I have 1 side sorted and just have to duplicate the other. I'll post pics here and on my build thread and we can continue some discourse on the topic. I know we have a veritable phone book of suspension threads but I'd like this to be almost specific to these era Fords with transverse springs. Interesting observation, both my 47 Clipper and my 41 160 Packards had front and rear sway bars, and the rears have a panhard with a dampener in the end. Rear leafs, front a-arms, tube shocks in the rear (a Packard contribution to the industry FWIW) and the Delco arm shocks in the front.

 

Getting there. Room for the exhaust, had an old mount that fit the original shock mount holes in the frame. One side down, time to mirror everything.

Still have to weld the gusset:

Carries the link:

Bar mount fits frame holes, and yes will address the rubber fit. Just mock up:

And room to roam (no the exhaust doesn't hang there, just dropped outta the way):


So far so good. Enjoy...

 

Done. A little here, a little there, now she's all in. I had to widen the bar about 1¾" and ran a long sleeve of seamless DOM tube with four ⅜ rosette welds to compliment the end welds, all tig welded and left to slow cool. I'm 100% confident in how I did that, no worries. A few pics here but I'll do the whole process in my build thread.

Just cuz I'm me I added a "part number" to the brackets


A special thanks to y'all for the pics and input.