Projects 40 Ford Sedan "The Varmit" IS DONE! Successfully completed a Reliability Run

Looks fine to me.

 

My Grandson attends Tarleton, and we go visit him occasionally. Next time we get up there, I would like to meet you and talk over our obsession. I'll try to drive my '32 Highboy since my '40 2-dr isn't road worthy as of Jan. 16.

 

Mocked up the grille this weekend to gauge ride height. The Chassis engineering spring is really stiff, and I'm not sure it's going to settle as much as I'd like. I've heard Poises springs offer more drop, so a good buddy of mine is letting me borrow a Poises spring to see the difference. This car MUST SIT RIGHT!!!

With the CE spring, the grille chin is 6.5" off the ground, but the rear is jacked way up in the air, so the nose will be higher. I'm hoping the posies spring + fluids+Fenders + settling will = a perfect stance.

 

I know I am a little late in posting this but the early Chevelle manifolds clears the steering box like it was made for it and the right clears as well, sorry late for the post. Frank

 

Aaahhh man, I thought you had a posies. The CE springs are stiff, my front spring did not settle but maybe 1/4" I'm going to de-arch it 2 - 2-1/2" because I'm too cheap to buy a posies after laying out the dough for the CE.

You can see mine in April and I'm pretty sure you will decide to swap it out. It's not sitting like a gasser, but its too high for my liking.

 

Hey Cvstl, look up a post by a guy named Birdman1 or something like that. He has a '39 coupe that is too low. He might swap springs with you.

 

Looking good Dan! Stance is everything.

 

Looks good Dan! Sounds like you need to get the rear down to really evaluate the height of the front.

 

I originally put together a spring using a CE main leaf in combination with some of the stock leaves; but it seemed too high to me. Thought about de-arching it; but decided it would end up too wide. I have a 47" CE axle and '40 bones; Posies came up with the recommendation to use their 2102 spring based on the spring eye centers. Put it in the other day, sits lower and the shackles have a good angle. May have to put shorter sway bar links tho.
As a reference there is 4-3/8" between the axle and frame. Maybe helpful info?

 

Thanks Rich! That does help. I'll hafta get the spring and get it in there and see how it looks

 

Top of axle to bottom of frame on the back side of the axle measures 4-3/4" on mine with the CE spring, as shipped. Its been sitting fully loaded for right at a year, has 3k miles on it or so, and has settled 3/8".

I'm running a stock axle that Sid dropped. Its dropped 2" over stock - what everybody calls a 4" dropped axle.

 

Clay I just went out and measured, and I have a little over 5" from axle top to frame. Sounds about right for a CE spring with no front clip unsettled.

 

LOL. Clay, I ran out to the garage and shot photos of that same measurement. Mine is 3 1/8" (average of the slope of the axle) on the coupe (dearched and reverse eye stock), and about 2 5/8" on the truck (Posies full width spring)

The Coupe's Deluxe grille is 5 3/4" from the floor to the dimple I gave it's chin, and the truck is 8 1/8" off the floor.

Coupe has a dropped '40 axle and the truck has the stock axle in it.

By the math, the coupes tires should be 25 3/8" tall and the truck's tires show 26 5/8" tall.

 

Bret, that confirms what I was thinking. If I reverse the main leaf on my stock spring, it will sit just right. I'm calling St. Louis Spring Co tomorrow and see what they'll sock me to reverse the main leaf and recondition my stock spring.

 

Yeah Dan, you might as well plan to fix it now. You won't like it if you just finish it as-is.

 

Clay, a spring company in town here worked over my rear spring and they charged me $50. Now, I have not put the rear back in the car so I cannot speak to the results!

 

I'll be wearing "garage safe" clothes tomorrow, while I am travelling, Dan. If ya wanna swap the spring tomorrow evening, I'm game.

 

Not to hijack or that anybody even cares, but I'll be dropping off my stock spring at St. Louis Spring next week for a clean-up and reverse the main leaf. I have a posies for the rear that I'll try on the rear.

 

Dan, Gene Cross has the reversed Eye spring that I took out of my 40. And he has several others, if you want to get me measurements I can see what he has and how much.

 

The pic below is a video on instagram, but it comes through here as a picture. Anyways, Slid the rear end back in today, and mocked up a tire to get an idea of ride height... just about perfect, and it will probably settle a bit. I also have a posies front spring now that I need to change out to get the front down another inch or so. Little by little!

 

Looking good.

 

The brakes are done. The pin in the shoe on the top left is not correct, rather a functional improvisation by a mechanic of yore. I couldn't help but to put it back that way to homage to him.
And a hubcap shot for fun.

 

Now those are some WIDE whites! You are making some good progress!

 

Saw you might buy a blast cabinet. I built mine from plans from TIP. 2 sheets of 5/8 plywood and follow the plans. I have had mine over 20 years and just had to line the back wall with sheet metal.

 

So, I'm terrible a at estimating ride height from the previous post. Got the brakes all together and rolled it outside... Much lower and much better.

 

This sucker is soooo cool Dan. Bringing it down in April?

 

Looks great Dan! The ride height in the rear looks just right.

 

Looking good! I'm am looking forward to see how much difference the Posies spring is going to make up front. Remember, a full fuel tank is going to add about 100lbs to the back end, and the rear spring will still settle a little bit with some use.

 

@Anderson Yeah it'll probably be ready by roundup '16.. A seasoned hot rodder could get it on the road faster, but I am SLOW and my budget is small. I will however, be down there this year in the Chevy coupe. Can't wait to check out the T.

 

Looking great Dan!