Im currently doing an air ride suspension on a 49 merc and am curious as to what others did for rear suspension to keep the backseat.Ive looked and havent found a good thread on this topic specifically.
i am just finishing up one now. i built a parallel 4 link, with a panhard par, using double convaluted bag over the axle. i did have to modify the floor but mostly in the trunk over top of the diff, and at the very front of the trunk. a few small modifications were done under the seat but it didn't affect getting the seat back in. two small tunnels over the link bars and a small tunnel over the center section of the diff. if you are willing to modify the floor in the trunk you do have an option of a 6 link set up ( bag on the rear bars ) it is a really good quality ride but you wouldn't have to make as big of a hump in the trunk because you won;t have to build the bridge for the upper bag mounts. ill post a few pics this evening for you
i haven't finished mine yet but i used the mid 60's chevy truck trailing arms and a front x member i built and a upper x member to mount the bags to. i built it also.
HOTRUST: Any pics...im in the process of building the same setup.Curious as to your atatchments for the front of the trailing arms.Did you go with the original truck bushings or something else? I will post as i have progress as well.
this is what we're doing in my son's 54 Ford. The x-member is installed, but the 2nd pic is of just the mock up. The x-member won't be quite that deep. This will be notched & lay out w/28" tall rear tires.
I have a bunch of pictures of 49-51 Mercury frames. Most are modified for bags, 4 links, or low drops, which I saved from various Hamb threads. If I get time tomorrow, I'll post some. Hopefully before then, people that have modified their frames will post their own pics.
Just to clarify after a few phone calls and emails. MetalShaper is the one making this suspension, not me, metalfaber. Just wanted to clarify Brian