IFS...can they be cool on a open wheeler?

I know how everyone feels about IFS on an open wheel vintage rod...pretty close to putting a honda V-Tec in your rod....but I have a complete IFS with rotors and the whole shooting match....how bad would that look on a 35 chevy rpu...thinking of going without fenders and making it look like an old dirt tracker if they ever ran Craftsman Truck in the dirt back in the day...does anyone have any decent IFS set-ups they could share...of coourse I do have a straight axle...It just seems the IFS would handle and corner better....I knowrods aren't for cornering but why not...joe

 

NEVER looks right....

 

Figure out a way to run your coilovers inboard and make it look like an early '60s indy car suspension.
Still wouldn't look like an old timmey front but it wouldn't look as out of place.

Naw never mind then you'd have to build a track nose for it ot not look out of place.

 

I think it would be fine. Not traditional, and not the focus of this site, but ok and cool nontheless.

 

Rods aren't for cornering and handling? Neither are p/u trucks. Hide it w/ fenders if you insist on runnin ifs. Oh, Craftsman "trucks" arent trucks. Do whatever you want, It's your truck. You want handling? Get a sports car.

 

Fatman Fabrications has a tube axle conversion. You supply the tube axle, cut it in the middle, and weld in the joints. It looks like a regular tube axle, but works like an IFS of sorts. Best of both worlds.
Hope this helps.
Later
Count

 

It's just wrong. I mean period.....

 

the axle is what makes it. is there something wrong with it?

 

All this set-up does is screw up a perfectly good axle.

This "thing" (gimmick) would be worse than a Ford twin I-beam front end for camber change (among other unwanted flaws). It's the worst of all worlds.

And, I don't see anyone putting Ford twin I-beams under anything being built on this forum.



Now for the IFS qustion. Don't do it. Straight axles can be made to and do handle well. Just like anything else, if the right combination of parts are technically used correctly, it'll work great and look great.

 

IFS on a fenderless car looks like poopy.

 

I disagree, ugly is cool. Seriously, IFS can be very beautiful, indy cars are a prime example. Factory IFS was never meant to be pretty (or even seen), but custom build tubular can be.

 

I think a f-1 style, real spare IFS can look good and elegant.. I'd love to see someone do it... on a chevy rpu though? That'll be tough to pull off, and I'd like to know more about the setup you're thinking about.

 

Not quite trad, but it's got a handmade tube frame. A Ford 8". A hacked together inline Ford six. MG steering. Mustang discs. Vette lower arms. Jag coilovers..... It's a lot of stuff put together hot rod style with hand beaten aluminum panels, homemade windshield.....and HORRORS!!! IFS!!! I think it looks cool, but it's a minimalist approach to IFS with a lot of fabricating to make it all fit.

Ok, it's a sort of Lotus, but with an American hot rod slant.... I think it looks cool.. It'll be black and aluminum. I like to think it's what a hot rodder might have done to a Lotus Seven if he had gotten hold of one in 1958....

 

Why not just go ahead and tell us how you feel...

I agree......just because someone sells something does NOT mean it is good, engineered correct or safe.....

 

No.

 

Interesting: I thought of this myself not long ago; decided it would cause too much bump steer & camber change (as someone else said). Since then I've come up with an idea for IFS that involves two front un-equal length "beams" (actually tubes of course), two trailing arms (like a split wishbone or 4-link), & torsion bars. Might even use the torsion bar link as the top "beam". Done right it would be very clean looking. Should provide the same geometry of un-equal length control arms.
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing.

 

Are you going for a racecar/high tech type look?

Or are you building a hotrod?

rjb

 

Yes.

It can work good and look cool...

 

that's badass... my friend and I are thinking about building something like this, can I get more info?

 

thats alot of good imput...I do believe you guys are right on about my IFS looking kinda out of place ..but as everyone is one kind of fabricator or another...I am sure tubular upper and lower A-arms have been done tastefully if there is such a thing...OK, I am gonna scrap the acquired and gonna go with my stock straight axle...now can you tell me how I can put disc brakes on my 35 Chevy truck straight axle...I got some big Caddy discs for the back of my 10 bolt and seems right to put the discs on the front to match...help me out, what brakes will fit on those spindles or should I pick up some new spindles too...have mercy on this new to building rodder ...I always wondered what guys thought of me in the goose hunting world...I am a pretty succesful 34 year old goose hunting guide and get calls all the time about my thoughts on certain goose hunting situations...well this sure ain't goose hunting!!!...now I feel like a fish out of water doing a hobby that has been taking up alot of my time...but I am sucking all this tech stuff up like a sponge...thanks for helping a brother out...joe

 

allright...Thats probably true...

Did you notice the hidden Coilovers?

 

Pics show the Watson roadsters (as well as others) used cross torsion bars....Jim Clark's Lotus in '61 was probably the first at Indy with coil-overs...torsion bars ruled until the rear engine revolution was complete in the late 60's...

 

If you were going for a period perfect mid- 60s look, a Corvair IFS would be tits.....

 

This front suspension is pretty clean. I found this one in Syracuse.

Another option is to use a twin I-beam front suspension like in Ford trucks.

 

even with tube a-arms it's still a cluttered look - especially on such a smoooooth car - stick with a tube or i-beam - much cleaner plus it screams hot rod

 

I don't think that roadster is running IFS. pretty sure it's got a tube axle in there.
Pretty archaic!
But some did run VW style IFS.
I wish the IRL would ban "wings" or anything on the body wider than the inside of the tires or higher than the current rollbar height. then it might be racing again.
------------------

I think a lot of you are forgetting the Chevy truck has parallel leaf springs and without Zing the frame or running the axle above the spring and not having ANY travel, they are hard to get low.

You want ugly? How about a '35 Chevy car IFS?
Knee action!

I think transverse torsion bars and a beam axle would be the way to go, or go "Ford had a better idea" with the transverse spring.

And as far as "traditional" front suspension goes, I was checking out a '56 picture of Norm Grabowski's T in the "R&C in the 50's" book and it's got four bar radius rods on it! Not hairpins!

There was a T at the LA Roadster Show last year that was built in '53 I think, that had a Ford axle cut and hinged in the middle, with a transverse spring and IFS kingpin uprights similar to an early Cobra with Ford spindles between the axle and spring.
Memory is fuzzy so I don't remember if the axle was on top or if the spring was, but the upright hinged top and bottom as they do in A arm IFS so it kept camber change to a minimum.
So there is precident for some types of IFS in rods in the early years.
Just not Corvair or Heidts.

How about a Morgan style sprung traveling spindle?
Looks sorta like Harley Springer meets Macpherson strut, compact, neat looking, works, and it's definitely as old as the hills of Malvern College.

 

My memory is getting worse, the details aren't as sharp as they used to be...

But I think R&C had an old photo of a deuce that was running IFS from one of the "modern" cars at the time the photo was taken......in the early 50s....I think it was in the one where they had nothing but '32 fords in it that month....

Granted, most IFS looks awful, but this one example didn't look too bad...just wish I could remember what it was.

 

IFS looks cool on a race car, but that's not what we're talking about here.

Even a clean IFS in an open fendered rod leaves much to be desired. Without a hood, the engine needs to be a detailed masterpiece. Without fenders, so does the frontend. A rod is minimalistic, so whatever is there should look killer. Don't kill a nice car with a shitty looking front suspension.