Using a 37-tube axle & repositioned wish bone with a spring over application & before I lop off the vacated front spring mounts, wondering if anyone has utilized them for shock mounts as opposed to the usual aftermarket brackets that bolt on the bottom of extended spring perches ? Much to be considered, such as too far forward, wrong angle, etc; all of which could be remedied with a hot wrench, just a fleeting thought to make use of a nicely engineered forged component. Photo's would be great, don't have access to measure things but will post when able.
In the late 1950s,I hunted up a lot of Ford parts,much of them in bad shape{I was hunting for free mostly} I had draged home a crashed in the ass, 28A roadster, The next big find was a rolled over 48 Ford I got the frontend out of,then 50 Olds on its side,I got the rear from. When put the 48 frontend under the 28A, I made my own front cross for the forward spring < in front of axle spring set up}{and redid the spring with a lot less leaf's,an a few from other springs over time too get best ride.} At first I tryed moving the front "A" crossmember( was really too rusty n weak) ,but later made one from a box tube that worked better. The 48 axle is stock droped by Ford about 3 in. and with spring out front of axle let me have a lower hotrod in front !! The pic should give some idea of front cross is moved forward,so 48 axle is about were 28 axles was. I used the 48 shocktowers with some extra sexy hole drilled. I still like what n how I did it. I got this rod first running in 1959,still have fun with !
Spring on top never was a good design to me. Makes it all to high. The big trick when playing with spring forward wish bones is too keep the spring mounts were they were designed to be,do any bone bending behind axle.
Have fun with it in any case ! Sorry if none was anyhelp ! How wide the the bones big bolts are,makes a prob for stock size spring.
Nice work Dana, however wanted to keep the front tube axle & spring on top as the car was when originally built didn't want to alter wheel base fore/aft or reposition the cross member. Sounds as if you have handled the error many have made when using the forward spring giving the car a goofy side view.
I was pruning some later wishbones a while ago and wondered if you could use the straight outward pointing part for a shock mount? Cut it off about an inch in front of the axle. Maybe tap it for a shock stud. I even wondered about turning the wishbones upside down to place the boss below the axle. You might need to adjust the caster angle if doing this.
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