I just picked up this front-end from a buddy that is from the PA area. Allegedly the 36 Ford it came off of drag raced there in the 50s/60s. This front-end was on the car prior to the 70s. It's a little mix of good, bad, and ugly... Thought it was interesting enough to share. The good: Dropped and filled I beam.... The filled area is so flat that....as this is the first one I've ever touched/owned.... I'd have suspected something that would show it had been filled. But it's pretty perfect in the area. Anyone know if there was an east coast shop doing these??? Roughly measured kingpin and perches....believe it's width is typical to 28's to 3's6 .....perch width seems to be 36 but king pins seem to be less than 50in width. I'll take a better look at it this weekend...And here's the car it was on... a cool Cabrolet with a 3 deuce Merc with all the t*******s. I suspect the car now has a 350 and auto...Oh yea, it's been bagged too (much to the disgust of the present owner)
Equipped with juice brakes...notice the air holes and the scalloped vents riveted on the backer plate... I really like those. And they have screens inside one...the other is missing.
Some of the ugly is what they did with the spindles....geesh. They will be replaced...but you gotta respect the ingenuity. Ha ha. There's two cuts that have been made on the cross steering arm and welded to change the direction 'crafting'. I got some replacements to choose from. My intent is to keep this front end nostalgic and only fix what's gonna kill me.
And here's the poor wishbones... And the spring pack...it's got some non matching additions.... but what I think is cool is that the primary group of leaves are tapered at the ends both ways to a very thin point. Believe this too was a trick mod...but not sure. I'll re-do the ends of the bones...very poor execution on them as it is.
More pics... oh....and the steering...yowsa!! There's a lot to take in with this little time capsule of cool. Hope yall enjoy it. They "clearance" the bones with a BFH...not sure I got a good enough pick of that....both under sides too....of course. I probably leave that alone...it's not viewable unless your under the car and staring at it.
I'm pretty sure that for at least a year or two the ends of the leaves were tapered like that from the factory, I have a spring that looks just like that.
I found some 'pulls' in the kitchen section of Home Depot. (whole drawer full of different sizes, some plated, some not...) I have some stashed away for my tub, roadster, and 'coupester'...
I put a dropped and filled axle like yours under my roadster. Bought it at a swap meet back in the mid 70's for $35. It was a nicely done piece, and I've never seen another one.
The Jalopy Journal
