Ok guys, I'm a major D A with the fords and am sure it has been covered, but what is the best way to lower my ride? Thanks Mike
I believe those are I beam front suspension...so youll need to pick up some drop I beams. Most manufactures(such as belltech, groundforce, hotchkis) have discontinued they're I beam line...so youll prolly need to find something that crosses over, check ebay...f100 forums...etc. Rear should be as easy as a dearch on the leaf...depending how low ya wanna go! -Shelby
yea.. if you want to lay this thing out, youre going to need to go the IFS route. There are a ton of threads on here. just do a search
How low do you want to go? You wont be able to tuck those wheels in with that front axle. I know they have Mustang II kits out there for that year truck(the trucks with front axle). I have a 65 F100(the 1st year of the twin I-beam)and could not find a lower suspension kit for it( this was 5 yrs ago).I wanted to go to the ground and lay frame with hydro's, so I grafted in a 71 Camaro front suspension. I have a pic of my truck on my profile. check it out.
Frank Dog, your 65 its always been one of my favorite Ford trucks,its simple yet so rad! to be honest all rides on your club are bad ass... anyway,sorry for the ot entry, wish ya luck w/ your project, franks truck its really amazing, check that out and then get on w/ the planning.
Ive got a dropped I beam on mine. Dont do the IFS unless you want bags but if you just want a few inches then do the dropped beam. Besides I beams are cool as shit and you want it to soemwhat look original right??? with the rear to get a good drop AND a good ride the C notch it but you can flip the springs but you bottom out. Ive had both set ups with my truck and now with the C notch and more travel its good. Youre truck is super cleran too...here is my ONLy 2 cents. If you are going to lower it then change the tires/rim combo to a white wall and original rim combo type. With those colors on that truck white walls and lowered would look GREAT on that truck...major potential with that truck man....i dont see too many as clean as yours. I would do the whites though....or just lower the from and have a nice hot rod rake to it...once again your truck though...dammn its clean....you bastard. haha
I'm pretty sure that those have a clip under them. You could probably get that low with a little more traditional approach via dropped axle and removing a leaf or two.
On my 61 (same axle as your 64) I did a 3" axle from these guys (the 53-56 one fits by drilling the U bolt holes larger) http://www.cenpen.com/truckaxles.htm in the front along with the Toyota 4X Power Steering conversion. In the rear I flipped the axle and did a 'C' section. If you want to go lower and have it all work right, talk to El Polacko on here about his Dakota swap, MUCH better than a Mustang II in these trucks
Are you planning on doing the job your self of lowering your truck? All these different choices of suspensions are great,but it involves some major work. I don't now what your fabricating skill levels are. No disrespect,but i've seen guy's bite more than they could chew and ruin a perfect running car. Like Bonez said, get a plan and do it. The choice of grafting the Camaro subframe was simply a budget thing.$200 from wreaking yard and remnant plates from metal supply store.
Maybe not as traditional as some, but less obvious and I think cool would be to mono-spring it, just opinion but I would do just about anything to avoid the Mustang II route. I did my 61 and got about 3" in back and almost 4" up front, no clearance issues. I am still wanting the back lower so I am dropping the bed a bit and relocating the front spring perch. BTW, lots of guys I have seen lower the rig and forget to accomidate the drop with a matched shock. Most good parts places can fix you up with the right length shock to mount up in the stock location, but shorter travel. Sweet ride you got there right now, but lower is better. And hey, no offense to the Mustang II/Bagged and lowered crowd, if you really want to get in on the ground and still be able to drive it safely that's the way to go, just not my thing.
just flip the front springs and section the oil pan, you'll have to reroute the pick-up tube and add a section to front of the pan to get the capacity back.
there is a tread on one of the f100 sites i think i googled it and found it did you get my pm and did the link work
I clipped my old ford pickup [mine was a 53..same basic frame from firewall back] with a front-steer camaro.....was immensly happy with it. I got modern disc brakes, variable ratio power steering and a low stance, all in one afternoon. My smallblock dropped right onto the original mount brackets and the sheetmetal wasn't hard to mount at all...I'd do it again in a heartbeat. What a nice driver it made...great brakes, quick steering and I even used the original chevy cross-flow radiator with it's shroud..
If you really want to get trick with it, Flatout Engineering does a C4 Corvette kit that gives you Massive Brakes, Power Rack & Pinion, amazing handling and you don't have to clip the frame. Really slick deal!
here is a link to the crown vic deal http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/716058-buildup-06-crown-vic-front-suspension-into-67-f100.html
Iam not sure if you have straight axle or twin I beams. Either way if its a straight axle I think you best bet is to find a shop that will drop your stock axle then you can have the main leaf reversed that should get you down between 3-6 inches depending on how you go about it. If its twin beam DJM offers what I think is the best aftermarket beams for this application. Its hard to find a shop that will drop your stock I beams but its worth looking in your area. DJM's beams drop you truck about 3-4 inches then you can run a set of lowered springs for a total of about six inches. The back is pretty straight forward but there are a few ways to do it. Relocate the springs to the bottom of the axle, or a set of shackles, or reversing the eyes on the main leaf and removing springs it all depends on how low you want to go. If you go real low you better plan on c-notching the frame in the rear. I hope this helps I have a 1966 f100 that I am going to bag. I have done lots of research on this subject so I hope this helps.
It might be lower than what you want but I have dropped the front with a Mor dropped 3 1/2" front straight axle with a mono leaf spring. The rear was flipped with a c-notch.