Technical Was this normal? Stacked gasser spindles

I See where these beauties are available for $350 on Instagram...

 

What about upper a-frame to back of tire clearance???

 

They certainly wouldn't be used in a "road racing" application.

The top example I posted ,trial fitted OK on an early Falcon with front skinny's [before we finally mothballed the whole project ][A rat gasser]
Things like machining cups to hold spherical bearings or custom A-arms , crack testing, and heat treating etc soon add up. [making a straight axle look cheap]

It can be done................yes
but do I recommend it .................

In my world it is "How low can you go"

 

Probably them
The FB ad

 

I don’t remember seeing any of those around here. The guys who wanted the high front end look just grabbed a pickup front axle and springs and welded it in. Used to be a 65 GTO around here like that, had six lug Chevy front wheels on it.

 

Holy Christ…

 

I first saw them in the early '70s. I always thought they gave a car a praying mantis look.

 

There used to be a kit you could buy with a formed plate setup to go between the arms n spindles, this one had that setup

 

Don't ask me, as I asked the same thing of a NHRA tech at the drag strip and was simply told, "That's our rule."
In that case it was a front axle that was cut and narrowed, and the guy did an excellent job on it. But the tech saw a plate on the backside of the web and asked why it was there? When the guy told him it was narrowed, he was told he couldn't run his car.
And since his weld was in the middle of the I beam axle, it's got little stress compared to these spindles, or a tube welded on the rear axle. My guess is they accept it on the rear because all rear axle tubes are welded at the factory, so another weld isn't a concern.

 

Nichols Engineering on Cline Ave in Highland Indiana who built a lot of top NASCAR stock car rides in the 50s- early 70s used to lengthen stock Pontiac spindles all the time until they started casting their own spindles. Atleast for stock cars it was pretty common, locally and nationally.

 

In fact their spindles were so good they were adapted by Chrysler for NASCAR and Trans-Am racing. Nichols built most of the Trans-Am cars for Chrysler. They stopped building cars in 72 or 73 I believe it was. They are still in business the last time I was there. I had gotten a tour of the place from Mr Nichols when I first got my drivers license in 1982. They have since moved the business across the road to another location. I’ve never been in there. Their old photo albums and pictures had me dumb struck.

 

I've seen a similar setup to what you described on a 2wd off road vehicle.[sand dunes]

They cut a pair of spindles off and put it in a lathe and machined the back side smooth.
It was stacked against a piece of channel steel and 8 x bolts through each backing plate flange.

This was probably a simple solution to "hackjob enineering" ^^^^^

Nowadays you can buy forged 2wd 4" lifted spindles for Chevy/Ford pickups. [Just adapt these]
This is an easier and safer solution.

 

Looks scary...