Features Dropped Axles and Aesthetics...

Weve dropped a few here and there. all my hot rods have and will have early ford dropped axles in them,

 

What's the history on Dago axles.......

 

Dago comes from the town name San "Diego", Ca. Hot rodder slang changed it to Dago. There was some shop there is all I recall reading, and was done, way, way back in time.

 

Quite the collection Titus, very cool.

 

Mindover, thanks for sharing the great photos.

I saved these two pics from here, I think, anyone know who they belong to...cool shots.

 

I have not read all the posts and probably will not. I would like to add my thoughts to the discussion though. No doubt someone else has already said what I have to say but redundency is not really a problem in hot rodding is it?

Seeing as how we are talking pure asthetics here. I think that the axle chosen to drop and to use depends completely on the build. Some cars will really look better with a more spindly axle and others really need the over engineered look. Just like some cars look 100% better without a dropped axle at all.

I personally donot think that all cars need a '32 heavy any more then I think that all cars need a dropped A axle. it just really depends on the rest of the build.

 

Here is one I got from GV in Oklahoma with my A Tudor

 

Lots of very cool looking axles in this thread. Some great stuff.

Here's my 3" stretch drop axle going under my 34.

 

Here is a 34 done by Okie Joe.


John

 

Here is mine- saved it from a local "rat rodder" who was gonna strip the chrome and drill it full of holes. He gladly traded for my non plated axle simply because it had 1/4" more drop

 

Here's mine on my '33 truck. I'm told it's a chromed Dago, but I don't know for sure.

 

Thanks, been trying to buy "Dago" axles when ever i could find them, i hadnt seen the 37-41 dago util one popped up on here and i bought, then last fall my buddy found me a dago 47/48 axle too. now i need to find a 42-46 dago and maybe a 47 with the spot for the shock hole but no shock hole then ill have one of each

Oh, some one else asked about the term "Dago" and yep, san diego is where it came from Ed "Axle" stewart and a small blacksmith shop are the guys behind them, people also called a car "dagowed" if it was lower in front because of the axle.

Harv, the first pic is of another batch we did long ago.

 

I also have this old chrome Mor-drop and chrome bell axle

 

David,
Forgive my ignorance here. Are you saying you dropped it cold?

V. Twin,
I think that dago dropped axles may be like Corvette engines they all are aren't they.

Nice looking axle whether it is a dago or not.

 

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Amen! I always have admired a nicely dropped Deuce axle but that is just me.

 

I thought so at the time! No one had dropped an axle here in the UK at the time that I knew of.

With a lot of youthful enthusiasm, a bit of railway line for an anvil some blacksmithing experience, a days work and a lot of heat.

No I heated it (lots). Its still on the car I built it for. The car is in Australia now though.

David

 

That (to use an Americanism) is awesome!

I dont know how to make the thumbnails show

David

 

On Ed Stewart axles
I was selling a few years back at the LA roadsters swap meet and this older guy stopped and talked.
He told me about how as a young man he would watch threw the window of the black smith shop were Stewart had them done.
It was very cool to hear about

 

Damn Chris....thats a nice one....

296V8 hooked me up with this...may chrome is someday....but then...maybe not...

 

Three beautiful examples of dropped heavies, all taken from here, maybe the owners/droppers will chime in. And three more great examples of days gone by dropped axles, just as beautiful in their own right.

 

So I got to reading this thread a week or two ago, and got all inspired... that can be dangerous. I looked threw all my scrap and treasures and came up with this.... I had a model A axle that had been wacked in the center and vee'd back a bit but after some press work you would never know it. Figured if I ruined it I wouldn't be out anything but it seemed to come out o.k.





I made the post adjustable in case I wanted to change camber, I also made the guide on the other end adjustable so I could let the axle shorten or make it taffy,(I did find that my mount for the free end wasn't beefy enough, I made it as strong as the piece of scrap would let me but it deflected a little instead of stretching the axle)






I dropped this one 2.5" below stock as that is all my steering arms would allow before hitting the Tie rod. Here it is with a stock one.


Thanks to everyone's posts and Titus's tech thread, this was a pretty fun project.

 

Thanks guys, I got in touch with Joe as his quality seems good based on the recomendations here and being closer than the rest as far as shipping goes. Will likely be sending him some cores in exchange for service. He also has a friend from this state that makes frequent trips down there and may work out something reasonable as far as getting the cores there and my axle back up here. Hope to get most of the parts for this chassis in the shop before the snow starts to fly. Rod

 

That's a pretty cool setup Leonard.

 

That is pretty sweet. Nice job!

--louis

 

Here is another old time drop that was done properly.

 

Man this is a neat thread !!!

 

Here's some more old axle pics.

Mor-Drop in my black 32 Fordor:





and another...





Neal

 

My heavy 32 axle with stretched letters. Drilled it and had it jet-hot coated right over all the forging lines and marks.

 

Just got inspired by all the other clever buggers here on the HAMB and made a jig and dropped 2 model A axles. Pretty happy with the outcome.