So the guy that works with me bought a 52 ford truck with a good solid everything. Flatty v8, surface rust but NOTHING through... all for... $100 bucks... Im jealous, but thats another story.... Anyways Im teaching him how to do restorations on his truck. He is building a 302 that he had sitting around, mostly stock engine, maybe a cam, and swapping it from a 2bbl to a 4bbl, and keeping the factory 3 on the tree.... Question is... He plans on driving this truck everyday and wanted to make it a little more driver friendly... How hard are these trucks to drive? Ive never drove a stock one. Should he keep factory style front suspension and modify it, if so what should we do? Or mustang 2 front? Opinions...Ideas...Experiences?
A lot of people go straight to an ifs but the solid front axle can be made to ride nice. The other thing youll probably want to change is the rear end gearing. Its not very friendly for highway speeds. If he keeps the solid axle power steering will be another thing that will make it drive nicer.
Stock front end is fine. If it is worn, you can rebuild it cheap. Swap the rear end for a 9 inch from a 1972 or earlier F-100. You will have to add shock mounts to the axle and shorten your drive shaft. The axle width, spring width, and bolt pattern are identical to the stock axle. Use 3.25 or 3.50 gears depending on how flat your area of the country is.
Forgot to mention... I live in the mountains, top speed around here is about 55. How unfriendly is the stock rear?
Depends on which ratio it has(3.92 or 4.27) and what size tires you have. The stock rear is plenty strong for a 302. As for front, the stock axle works fine if everything is tight, remove a few leaves and they ride pretty decent. Mine still has the beam. The Jag IFS fits these trucks pretty well too, search for threads here on that. Have fun.
I have a '55 F100. Mine has a fairly stock 390 FE motor in it. With the factory 3.92 geared rear end mine used to be drivable on the highway (55MPH range) but was working pretty hard. I swapped to a 9" rear axle from a '70 F100 with around a 3.25 and it is much better for the highway. I'm not 100% sure but I thought the '48-52 F trucks might be a little narrower than the '53-56 models. May want to check on rear end widths first but should probably be OK. I also run the stock front end in my truck. These things are built pretty heavy duty from the factory. The previous owner had removed some of the front leaf springs to lower it some but it also helps with the ride quality. I think mine rides nicer than my daily driver Jeep Wrangler. The lack of power steering can sometimes be a pain especially when parking but is manageable IMO. Having your steering box and kingpins tight and not all worn out also helps.
I am/was running all stock in my avatar , 55 F100 panel truck , The rear gears were loose , and I kept putting it off changing , Til it finally locked up on me , on a set of railroad tracks, I was able to rock it back and forth to get it off to a safe area. There was no using my daily driver after that ,so I had no choice in the matter, so I had to do the swap. and I had an excursion I was scrapping , It had a set of 3.08 gears , and a power traction control. WOW, what a difference, I can actually go over 70MPH, at lower RPM, (70 was really pushing max before) I had to install new spring saddles sistered up to the inside edge of the existing perches, and that new rearend is a tad wider , but, it fills the wheel wells , and looks better , running 235 75 15s, , as for the steering , the I beam is fine , keep the large steering wheel , I've seen people with stock front ends , and an 8 inch aftermarket steering wheel , and they bitch about how hard it is to steer ,,, HUH, go figger'
my neighbor bought a 52 out of taylorsville a coupla months ago and i think i've about got him talked into jag xj front on it. he's wanting about 4" drop and disc and whatnot and that all comes in that package. i think he's mostly undecided because he's seeing mine in my 62 as alot of work but mine is being notched into the frame which we won't do with his....ken....
the drop axle is the way to go in my opinion, Speedway offers a PS box for these trucks, also. CE makes a motor mount kit & trans mount crossmember. you can use a `58-`60 F-100 9" REAR END( which makes gear set change easier).
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