I posted my plans for my wagon on the main forum. And will probably post this also.I was planning on doing an air bag set up on the car with rear trailing arms, but have been doing some research on here and read about the Aerostar springs and was thinking of using coils on the rear with the trailing arms. I'm starting to think that I don't want to have all the plumbing and extra parts under the car just to be able to raise and lower it. I don't even want the car to lay out when parked. I was just wanting it to ride as smooth as possible. My second thing is I was thinking of doing 4-wheel disc brakes. I've got an 8.8" out of a mid 80's Lincoln with disc already and was thinking of doing the Granada conversion on the front. I've done some searching on older discussions and JeffB2 had mentioned in one of them that the 55-56 Fords had really good drum brakes. I was thinking to save money I could just swap them out to power brakes and leave the drums. I would like opinions on these I could go either way. Opinions lets hear em'.
Ron and I stayed with drums on his '56, going with the wider wagon shoes and adding an aftermarket power brake setup. Driving it around on the property so far, it stops real good, and you don't even know it's power brakes. Most guys would probably agree that an upgrade to discs on the front is a good thing, and if you've got the time and dollars in the future worth considering, but for everyday cruising, I'd say the 4 drum stock setup, rebuilt and adjusted correctly, with power ***ist, is plenty good.
I don't "get" air ride systems, but I never wanted to "lay frame" either. I guess I'm just old fashioned. My desire is for my cars to sit so that they look "right" to my eye and be able to corner gracefully when pushed hard. I much prefer a "firm" ride where I can feel the road surface. I tend to drive my cars hard...not abusively, but certainly not gently either. I design and build them to be responsive and fun to drive. This is unusual in today's hot rod/custom car world. At least one air ride company bases their advertising upon handling ability, not frame laying, and have built project cars to display this feature. If it were my $$$ and I just had to have an air ride system, this is where I'd start. Brakes: You can't have too much brakes. You've got to be able to stop at least as well as modern sub-compacts to stay alive on the freeway. Today's transportation cars have awesome stopping power. Yours has to be better to keep from rear-ending one of them in a panic stop situation. So, as much as I like all things traditional, I opt for big discs in the front and big drums in the rear...with a proportioning valve and residual pressure valves as required. And, take the time to set them up correctly! Just because you've got monster brakes doesn't mean they'll stop your car in a panic stop! My $.02...
I must say that a disc/drum setup works great and stops like it should. I did the Jamco setup and I'm glad I did.
I have discs up front and properly adjusted drums in the rear. I am running a proportioning valve and a power booster. I can stop on a dime, I have peace of mind, and when I want to I can "lay frame". I can also tell you that with my bags at ride height, the ride is awesome, and taking turns at speed isn't anywhere near what it was before my MII install- it works and it works VERY well. I got my bags to be able to ride comfortably slammed as far as I could go, as I really like the look. You have options. If you aren't concerned with adjustability, a nice front disc and rear drum setup with proportioning valve will work great. Maybe look into getting new springs for the rear and some nice shocks. The ride should be pretty damn good. Lots of good opinions here, thats why I love this place. We are all doing something different with what we have.
My .02 from personal experience. I gotta say, I don't think I'll ever do air bags again.....only if I have enough to do a nice system with Shockwaves, ride height controllers, etc. I did my first air ride system on my '55 Fairlane, been on the road about 6 months now. It's awesome to be able to adjust the height, to go from an "almost g***er" look, to a slammed custom in seconds.....but it's not worth the trouble. I built all the brackets/mounts myself, and it saved me a lot of money. I know i'd probly like it more if i had spent the money and front-clipped it or bought the pro-made brackets.... Parallel 4 linked the rear (best investment i made) because I have about 500 Hp and almost 600 ft lbs of tq. I'd recommend doing a parallel 4 link to anyone that builds their car with a powerful motor, it hooks up and handles AMAZING. It's in good working order now, but there always seemed to be a leak or a sticky valve or somethin else. And even to this day, that's in the back of my mind every time I get in it....I'm just glad I built it to NOT lay frame, build it to where you can get home if your system fails. It was tough getting the shocks positioned right, making a good, smooth ride, and getting everything to where it doesn't rub on the bags/lines. Mine Still rides a little rough in the back.... If i could do it again, I'd do the Aerostar frt springs (A friend of mine did on his '57, rides like a Caddy, sits NICE), do a 4 link rear, find some nice soft springs for the rear, and run GOOD shocks.
So after doing some research in the archives is it worth the bucks to swap to disc? 1955 Customline total brake surface area 175.4 sq. in. stopping distance 30 to 0 with 5 p***engers was 40' 5", 60 to 0 178' remember this is with old style asbestos linings, single master cylinder non-power brakes and bias ply 670X15 tires.Let's take a more modern car close to the same weight,the 1994 Ford Taurus stopping distance 60 to 0 is 168', not much difference? So if we spend $200 on a power brake and dual master and have modern semi-metallic shoes and radial tires on the '55 seems to me it would stop better than the Taurus For around a $100 you could have your shoes relined with Kevlar and have less wear and around 20-25% less fade.Now what do do with those extra $$ left in your wallet?
JeffB2, all good points. I really would like to put disc all around, but I was going to use the 8.8" axle with disc that my dad has. He wasn't going to use it, but now he's thinking about using it in his 40' Ford pick-up, so I will be sticking with the stock rear axle, and you've got me leaning toward sticking with the front drums, but adding power. I know my brakes are alot bigger than the brakes on my buddies 54' Customline.
I too am leaning towards Jeff's corner. I've got a '54 Ford Courier. I'll be putting in a 5.0 aod or 5 spd. I had a '69 Bronco and I added power boost to it using new drums all around and shoes, etc. I was really surprised how well the Bronco stopped even without discs. So there's something to say about sticking with drums on the Courier.
Well I took my '56 out for a drive home today then back to the shop for some finishing touches. But as John said previously, I stayed with drums and just added the power booster/twin cup master cylinder. Stops good! I mean, I didn't do any panic stops but I went through town mid-rush hour so did a fair share of normal stop/go and the brakes worked fine. Probly a bit better than I expected so I'm very satisfied. I considered going discs when we discussed the project but knowing now how it turned out, I gotta say I'm pleased with the result and especially with the $$$ saved.
After thinking about it, ALOT. I've decided to stick with the drum setup and add power. I also decided, actually changed my plan of doing the airbags. I've decided to stick with the stock suspension, but use the Aerostar springs in front and put blocks in the rear. I'm going to use the money I would've used for the airbag setup to buy the materials to bodywork and paint the car. I've had the car for 13 yrs. and haven't gotten her dialed in yet. It's her time, and I figure if I still wanna do the airbags at a later time I can.
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