I'm in the process of collecting parts to start a new project which will be based around a Model A frame. Right now I just have the bare frame, but have come across an incomplete '49 or '50 Ford F-1 truck at a reasonable price. It has a flathead, trans, full front suspension with steering box and column, complete brakes, and an open drive shaft rear end and wheels. Aside from the obvious engine and transmission, which parts would be usefull? Are the juice brakes, steering column and box, spindles, rear axle, etc. worth messing with? I know a lot of people use these parts, but does the cost of rebuilding them come out lower than just buying new parts from someone like Speedway? I'm trying to watch the money here, so any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Not a hundred percent sure, but I do know that the brake parts are pretty cheap and should be plenty capable of stopping anything the size of the F1 or smaller. The steering parts are very reliable and low maintenence, so as long as you are using a frontend setup to where the drag link moves fore and aft it would be a decent rig. The rearends are good, and will hold up to even a decent smallblock. If you can get it right, it would definitely be decent parts. Does it have a cab? I've seen some pretty cool rods built with F1 cabs.
Use the center crossmember. Already has mounting provisions for the truck pedals, master cylinder, and transmission.
Shock mounts, brakes, steering box, open drive trans (depending on what you're building) Brakes are very cheap. i got most of the brake stuff I needed for my F-1 through Napa. The only thing expensive are the drums ($100 a piece) and you have to buy them through a place like LMC. I think the rear brakes are pretty much the same from 48-66.
Like mentioned above: Brakes, upper shock mounts, steering box, center crossmember and V8 transmission, pedals, electrical switches if they're in decent shape, ebrake handle if you like the under dash style, gauges maybe.
Does anyone know if the spindles from the '49 - '50 will fit on an earlier axle like a '28 - early '40s. Has anyone bolted transverse spring perches to the parallel leaf spring pads on one of these axles to convert it for an earlier car?
The spindles will physically bolt up to the earlier axle, some folks say there is a camber difference, some say there isn't. I've never tried personally. I wouldn't use that F1 axle on an early car no how no way. Too heavy/ugly/wide.
grab it you will thank me later....I just bought all that stuff from the evilbay and I should have just bought a whole truck
F-1 brakes are Bendix "servo" (self-energizing) design - very effective stoppers. Use F-1 backing plates, shoes & associated hardware, hubs and drums. Use '39-'48 spindles on "A" axle. The '39 & '40 work as-is, '41-'48 need just a bit of grinding to clear backing plate, easily done with small hand grinder. Front wheel bearing kit to adapt F-1 hubs to the spindles (will need to modify inside taper bearing, easy to do) is available from Speedway or can buy bearings separately from your local NAPA store. You will have more stopping power than you have "go" power.
I found a junky old 50 in a dudes backyard....paid him $40 and got to work. Pick the chicken to the bones man! Pulled the kingpins and grabbed the whole brake/drum/spindle/hub assemblies all in tact. Then just put them as is, complete on a dropped 36 ford axle in my model A....you need to use the longer truck kingpins, the pin diameter is the same as the cars all the way from Model A up to 52 Ford pickups/48 ford cars. Super easy. I redid the bushings and got new pins though. Also rebuilt the brakes and put new seals in the hubs. Still the most affordable option by far....best bang for your buck. As far as the camber difference, as far as I can tell, it's not worth mentioning. The Doane Spencer car has truck spindles too...and nobody's talkin shit about his car! lol The other thing you'll need to do is buy aftermarket bolt on steering arms for the spindles...the truck has the weird clunky chunky bracket thingy on the drivers side for the weird draglink connector arm to hook to. Just cut the chunk down and dress it with the grinder and polishing wheel...the passenger side has a regular spindle arm, you'll have to hack that sucker off too and dress that with the grinder and polishing wheel. I cut my passenger side one first and rounded it out nice, then tried to make the driver's side match as close as I could. Wait to order arms though...because they come in different drops that will work with different steering/axle locator setups. I used deep deep drop magnum arms because I'm running wishbones and wanted my tierod just below the bones. Steering from those trucks is wicked...better ratio than the cars for ease of steering and the 3/4 tonne boxes are even better. Steering wheel is a bit big for a model A, in my opinion, but guys use big fucking wheels from 40's and 50's cars ?!?!? whatever floats your boat. The whole complete steering setup is nice, because you've got the horn button and a hollow shaft to run your wire down. Column drops are nice too. Gauges are nice and I've seen guys running modified ford pickup dashes in their A's. There's a gastank under the seat that would work good too, lotta guys use them. Like other guys said too...you can modify the centre frame sections and your peddles are right their. I think the F1 peddles are kinda high, but if you run a standard model A firewall with the angled toe board, they should be fine, and you can adjust them and fuck with them a bit. The list goes on for usable and re-sellable parts....take it all! hahah. Somebody will want the rearend....probably wouldn't get much for it...but still, you can use all the springs and hangers on other projects...even if you build a trailer or something. Somebody would want that front axle too if it was in nice shape. $50 would be fair for the axle. What I'm saying is if you get a sweet deal for the whole thing...like an all you can eat bufffet...stuff your face and your pockets! haha good luck
The Jalopy Journal
