my project is a 1946 chevy coupe, thinking big block chevy or olds my question is has anyone used a front suspension other than mustang two that would be good with heavy engine and fit in a fairly limited budget? your thoughts would be appreciated
Yep. I have used a complete 74 nova front stub style in a couple of fat fendered cars, and it worked well. You will just have to fab the sheet metal mounts.
Why not use the original front suspension? It's a good design, to begin with and from what I've read parts are available.
if i use the original front suspension what sre options yo lower it, upgrade brakes, and better shocks? in the rear i think maybe a 57 chevy rear that i have with the stock springs what challenges does this bring?
I put dropped coils and dropped spindles on my 47 and its looooowwww. leave the knee actions and make brackets for airplane style shocks .
I am also intersted in how FLop did his front end because I am also wanting to lower my 47 Chevy. Flop's front end sounds like the route I want to go.
The old hot rod way before MII and clip front ends was to add a regular modern (airplane) shock making sure that the old shock was empty and it's only function was the pivot point for the upper control arm. The problem is that the added shock can interfere with tire movement so Make sure the tire will swing lock to lock without hitting the shock. I'm pretty sure Fat Man makes dropped uprights to lower the car and not change the geometry. The original stuff is very beefy when compared to the MII stuff although it seems to have worked for several years now.
i like the stock front end just needs lowered what is involved with installing 57 chevy rear end on stock rear sprimgs
Should not be a problem.... especially if you are converting to an open drive line. I'd probably dis-assemble the spring pack and clean 'em up and throw on some paint. Check the front bushing for excess wear and also take a peek at the shackles, too.
You can do all the same things to these guys do to 49-51 cars. The front suspension unbolts from the frame. There are kits, or you can put a Jaguar XJ front end (they unbolt too) in fairly easily. Rearend, same deal, several later rearends will bolt on if you provide for the off-center locating pin, or you can scare up kits to put different springs in it (Posies may even have a spring that goes on the stock hangers). There really is no reason to cut up the frame.
Stock. Modern shocks. Original shocks gutted. The engine that was in there was not exactly light, so stiffer springs may not be needed. They are out there, if you do need them. Minimal investment, in the case that you want to make a change later. Disassemble the rear springs, clean them, and then reassemble with the plastic strips that are sold to go between them. This cleans up the action. After that, with some simple spring perches (offset pin), you can put any like-width rear axle in there.
The overall width works. I am not sure about the spring perches, though. We've got two in the shop, but I think that the perches are already off. If the perch width matches, then yes, drilling another centering hole in the perch pad would do the trick (with fresh u-bolts, and u-bolt plates, but that's easy).
Joes cool stuff sells a front end lowering kit for 100.00! Says you get 2-3" drop with no major mods. Ordered one for mine have not installed it yet.
I put loads of miles on my original 39 Chevy suspension with great results. All the parts are available to rebuild them and the shocks will work as long as they hold oil. The rear springs are just fine as well, but will have some wrap with any kind of horsepower. Fatman has dropped spindles and ECI makes a simple and reasonable disc brake kit. Nobody makes a good power steering kit other than the rack conversion from Fatman and it sucks. If you are any kind of fabricator you can build your own which is what I did using the easy to find GM 800 series box.
Second gen Camaro; perches are a match for width. 55-57s are close but need to be tweaked a bit, guys have made them work uncut going back as far as people started converting these to open drive. S10 4x4 will work with new perches. As I said before, the same stuff that works for 49-54 cars works in these.
Project 41, I have a 46 olds that has a similar but I think slightly beefer front end. I run a BBC and still run the main front parts. I used a dropped upright from Fatmans and fabricated my own caliper brackets and machined the spindles to accept late model Chevy rotors. I took it one more step and squeezed in air ride but, not sure I would do it again. Way too much cutting and welding. Run a Z24 rack for steering. On the rear, I used a late model Gen III camaro rear and just transferred the original control arms. Rebuilt all of the rubber joints. I have about 10K miles and have had no issues.
there is no better front end for these cars than the MustangII. if you think it is not beefy enough because the basic geometry was used in a Pinto you need to do some research.
i want to use the stock front and rear suspension due to budget. i just want to lower it. i am unable to find a joes cool stuff for a lowering kit
By beefer, I meant that the olds is beefer than the 41 Chevy Front End. Slightly different design. Yes I know that the mustang components are plenty heavy but like Project 41, I wanted to try to keep the stock front end. There is no doubt that the 41 or mustang front will hold the weight. I think that it was mentioned before but, the BBC is only slightly heavier than the original inline 6. On dropping it, I used uprights by Fat Mans Fabrication but, don't see them on their site. May need to call them.
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