I inherited this 54 Chevy Belair from my brother. He raised the mustang suspension to get it lower to the ground. It will be on bags..I'm new to mustang 2 suspension but something don't seem right. What are your guys thoughts and suggestions to fix this to make it safer. Do I need to pull in top hat more?
Top hat Chevy frames don’t have a lot of strength in the upper three surfaces. Welding the spring mount to basically one surface is just asking for it to crack the frame. Take a look at how the bolt on kits from Ch***is Engineering would capture all the way around the frame, clamping down to the horizontal flanges. A much better way to spread the load.
Technically, everything forward of the MII crossmember is just holding up sheet metal and a radiator, so the notched rails for steering clearance wouldn't be cause for alarm. I think with some good diagonal gussets from the rails to the front and rear of the spring buckets, and possibly inside the spring buckets to the frame rails would make me feel better about that setup.
I question a bunch of things in the pictures. installed height, upper arm angle, mods to the frame others have mentioned. I'd suggest you look at major successful company's designs. so you know what a proper install looks like. Example www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtwUPfwZulg It's probably not what you want to hear, but that is probably better off being replaced rather than repaired. I haven't built or owned one, but have seen a lot of them. The lower crossmember is almost always quite a bit below the rails, even on a car with bags 'laying rocker'. I found this drawing. I can't vouch for it's application for your car, but shows what I'm talking about.
Start over! All I see in the pictures is a failure waiting to happen. Both frame rails have been compromised with a notch at 1/2 its original proportions. The top hat appears to only be attached to the top of the frame rail, which is really an issue with this GM frame design. We have no idea how the lower control arm attachment has been modified from its original design. The added leverage of raising the suspension above the intended design height is a huge problem. Everything here has been compromised. I would really like to see how the outer upper control arm hat is attached to the outer frame rail and I really want to see if the notch has been boxed back in. I also would like to see how the lower control arm is attached to the frame, is it now above the crossmember that is under the motor height? As it appears, unless that frame rail notch is boxed back in, the top of the frame is going to start ripping apart at the notch, even if its in front of the springs. The top hat gets its strength from the entire length of the frame rails, and it needs to be attached to at least 2 surfaces. It appears to me as the hat is only attached to the top of the frame rail, that won't last long and an unboxed notch will shorten the time frame before the failure.
I have yet to really get into it. This weekend I'm lift it up and take look. I'm guessing the inside isn't reinforced. I got this car mid way in the build. We talked about plans and what he was doing. I will.take closer look.this weekend
@lowrodderchev I hope you can get it going again, best of luck. If this requires major rework, I'd try to get it so that even if a bag fails, the tires are still supporting the car. Many extreme examples will have travel even past the point where the frame is on the ground, but that's just wasted movement and geometry will suffer. BTW, got pulled over once on a bike. Cop asked Do you know how fast? I told him No, the speedo only goes to 85 and at those speeds I was paying attention to the road, not a dial. Got a warning!
From what I can see there's nothing about that installation that looks right from the pics provided. It looks to be set way too low ( or high depending on your perspective) such that there's not enough spindle height to get a wheel on to it. Never seen the upper mount raised so high or with such little attachment to the frame. Also never seen a crossmember so high relative to the frame. To get it super low, when mocking it up it needs the wheels, spindles and a arms set up, with the frame at desired, low, height, a arms at or near maximum downward travel, and from all that the required positioning of the crossmember should magically appear! Bags don't lower a car, they raise it up! Chris
The only one I've done had gussets to weld to the outside of the frame rails up to the spring hat. A Fatman kit, if I remember right. Gary
If it was my deal and I had to be super low, I would step the frame and use a new crossmember that was welded in a conventional way.
It doesn't appear that the actual movement of the suspension components has been compromised from what I can see. If the suspension actually seems to work ok, you might consider cleaning the surfaces and adding some additional supporting bracing. I drew some lines on the picture to show where I'm talking about. Not very well done, but I think it shows well enough to see what I'm talking about. Given the rust present, I'd also dis***emble the components and clean paint and lube it all. If the movement is compromised in some way by this installation, then I would remove everything and start over.
Yeah, looks shady. A step in the frame would keep in the same ride height and allow the crossmember to clamp around the frame, instead of being precariously perched on top of it. Pictured below is the M2 crossmember from ch***is engineering. See how it encapsulates the frame. That's what I'd be shooting for.
If the cut out does not have a radius filler on the bottom, I would add one, and then a simple triangle shaped brace from the front of the box shape as shown by the Red Line. It could also be just a 1" square box tube. Thats my best guess anyway. The lines are pretty simplistic. Actually the picture @Dan Hay posted above is more like what I think it should look like. That kinda gives room to put 2 forward braces in place if needed. One other thing comes to mind..........where the cut out is, instead of just putting an "arc" shape in the radiaus, it might be possible to put a full circle (ring) in place as long as it would allow the rack to be removed . That would add strength if there is room.
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