I Bought some Aerostar Springs for my 53 Ford and have a Question. The Aerostar Springs are Said to lower your car 2 1/2 to 3 inches. This affects the Camber in the Front End Alignment. Does the Eccentric in the Upper A-Arm of 49-53 Ford's have Enough Travel to get the Cars Alignment to Specification? What is Everyone doing for Alignment? Shoebox Central make a Kit that Changes the Control Arm Mounting to Allow more Adjustment. Shims can be added more like a Late Model Car. Anyone Using this Kit?
This should be interesting Back in the 70's and 80's when I was managing tire stores almost everyone had alignment racks and an alignment was only as good as the guy doing it some just had a knack for knowing how to compensate for suspension changes. This was a funny example,guy came in bought four new tires and an alignment in a '73 Pontiac came back a day later and told us "the car has a bad pull to the right" when his wife was riding with him. Turned out she probably weighed in around 500+ pounds and 'Ol Jim our alignment guy re-aligned the car with her in it,problem solved!
Many years ago I cut 2 coils from my front springs and had it realigned. About five years ago I put the Areostar coils on the same 53 Ford 4dr. I have never had the alignment redone since the install. My front tires show no excessive wear and I drive my car to two or more cruises every weekend from April to November and some cruises can be up to 125 miles round trip.
I had a customer when I was doing alignments... 6'8" tall and 410 lbs... I did the alignment with him behind the wheel of his big Mercury. Cars with shims were easy to fix a pull condition, just jockey the shims back or forth. If the a-arm is symmetrical, the camber stays the same and just the caster changes. I plopped my engine in the car a couple of months back for a fit check. The camber was definitely too low with the aerostar springs, so I added about 3/8" of shims to all 4 bolts. I expect to take some out after the car is loaded up.
bobss396 Doubt if there will be 3/8" of Adjustment in the Upper Eccentric in the Upper A-Arm on my 53 Ford. Sounds Like I might Need Something to Give me More Adjustment then Stock. Jim
With all the Aerostar Springs going on 49-53 Fords. you would think that Someone would have had their Car Aligned. I never had the 53 Ford I owned in 1958 Aligned, but I was just a Kid & didn't know about Alignment. I will be Driving this Car on Highways at Faster Speeds & longer Distances.
Here is the link from the "Sticky FAQ" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...coil-springs-49-thru-59-ford-and-merc.260795/ Click on it then go to "search" this thread and type in "alignment".
There are a lot of members here with Aerostar springs in their Fords and I don't think I have ever heard anyone mention about wheel alignment. Glad you brought it up Jim.
I'm not quite up to the alignment stage but feel I have enough travel in all components. Cars with shims probably hold an advantage over older cars for a bigger range of adjustments.
Used Aerostars in my '53 with a 6 cylinder engine. Had aligned and soecs we a bit off but not bad. I think I have the specs somewhere. Since then I have put in ARDUN with an AOD. No problems apparent. Also used Diamond Back radials. Just wish I had room for power steering. No room for the PS pump as I have opted to install AC which the compressor takes the last bit of space. Same issue on Power Brakes but I was able to put in a Mustang Dual Master Cylinder. Picture (when getting loser to completion) shows the space issues. No bolt-ons here, everything has to be custom made.
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