In doing research on options for dropping the front of my '41 coupe, I came across a thread from '07 that mentioned this dropped front cross member from Speedway but there was no discussion about it. Has anyone here used it? What are your thoughts? Thanks. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/1941-48-Ford-Crossmember,3439.html
I have a lot of experience with this crossmember, I sort of invented it for another shop in the ‘80’s that is out of business now and the speedway crossmember is a not as refined copy of the one I invented. That being said, My original design and first attempt crossmember is installed in my 46 Ford. This is the car I was seeking to get lower originally and designed it for. In my 46 I run a Super Bell 4” dropped axle along with a Super Low Posies reversed eye spring with the 46 wishbones split. The axle and spring are for a 40 Ford which is 3” narrower than the 46 to allow for the car’s lowness. The wishbones were adjusted for the narrowness when heating and bending the spring perches. The car sat good with this setup but I wanted it more dramatic and originally set out to just modify the stock front crossmember, which in effect could still be done to someone’s original design. Mine had someone else’s previous custom torch work so I was interested in making a new one. This is how my car sits now. I could easily go on and on about this topic but specifically what do you want to know
During the 40+ years I was in the ch***is business I did a limited number of 46-48 repro ch***is. Most involved repro rails & IFS fronts. I did do a couple straight axle fronts involving new rails and the Speedway front cross member. I had no problems setting up the front end and t******* the cross member to fit the boxed sails. I did have the luxury of having a really nice 46-48 frame in my bone pile for measurements. The customers I built the ch***is for had no problems and were satisfied.
If I go with the cross member, is there anything else that needs to be modified? Steering, sway bar? I plan on running a small block Ford and AOD, any clearance problems with this cross member? Thanks.
I think one of the ch***is used a SBF & AOD and the owner furnished a rear sump oil pan for clearance. I'm not much of a Ford motor guy. I also checked and have a few pictures of the IFS ch***is but haven't yet located any of the straight axle fronts.
I’m not a Ford motor guy either but you will definitely need to use the rear sump pan. I’m not sure if you are thinking of using only the crossmember and everything else is stock. I’ve never used one that way but I think everything will clear. Myself, like @krylon32 come from heavily modified ch***is backgrounds and know that sometimes once one thing is modified, the dominoes start falling for other parts needing to be tweaked. please keep that in mind.
The few people I know running them super low with that/ or similar cross member have mentioned getting pretty tight on clearance getting the wishbones under the frame. One of the guys splits them to the outside of the frame, I’ve also seen them done with four bars to the outside of the frame. maybe running the narrower 40’ axle helps? To the guys who have already posted are you putting the split bones to the center or? I’ve always played with putting one in my 46 but I can’t hardly get under it as is lol
I ran my bones to the center. I also romanced the top of the bones in the “S” area and thinned them down a little and lastly I did fabricate and weld in notches or channels in the frame above the bones to gain a little extra space. All just little tweaks to gain enough clearance. The narrower’40 stuff helps more with tire and fender clearances than anything else as it’s just an inch and a half per side. My car is definitely extremely excessive on the lowering and not necessarily practical and definitely not something that I would recommend for most people.
I have dropped crossmember from the "Forty Fort" (if I remember the name correctly). I have a stock axle with a Posies low spring which caused some trouble so I ended up C notch for clearance. Also ran into the wishbone problem that @Tim mentioned. One day I was looking and noticed how close they were; so I ended up "dropping" them to get clearance. In retrospect probably should done stuff differently; but who knows. I might even get the car on the road someday.
I'm not looking to drop mine into the weeds, would just like to drop it 2 - 3 inches. The '41 is such an odd duck that Posies doesn't even list a front spring for them and my spring perches don't measure the same as anything older or newer. I was thinking the dropped cross member with everything else stock might put me where I want to be.
I’m almost positive that a 40 spring and axle is the same as a 41 but truthfully if you have a stock spring it’s probably flattened out as much as a new aftermarket spring. if not you can get a long ways by just removing a few leaves. It’s also very common/ traditional to lower a spring in front car by putting longer shackles on it. I think a 41 has a pan hard bar in front like a 42-8 so you just bend/ adjust the sway bar to fit and that keeps any potential sway away. Plenty of threads about this front and back if you do some searching. I would do that first as it cost nothing but some time and maybe a new tie bolt. I would really consider a dropped axle and dropped steering arms before going to the cross member. That’s something you can do on the work bench almost entirely. Pull the front end, change out the parts and put it back in. Even just getting the stock cross member out is going to be a mammoth amount of work even if you are a pro at getting those rivets out. It would be very easy to make a complete car a stalled project with this project. You should also measure very closely to see what your existing engine placement gives you in terms of room. You could quickly find your self getting into different motor mounts and a whole row of dominos falling. I’m glad to have watched it because there’s no way I could have swapped the crossmember to the dropped one on my complete car with out taking an aweful lot of it apart.
I completely agree with what @Tim is saying in the above post. This conversation is not for the weak as the crossmember removal is definitely a huge undertaking, even more difficult with the engine in place. I agree with him also on the axle swap is easier and probably more effective. I would only swap the crossmember to achieve maximum lowness. Also not mentioned is that if you have a flathead or motor mounts that require the stock Ford location and biscuits the new crossmember has zero provisions for this and “making it work” with something else with not be very good. lastly, I’ve never installed the new crossmember on anything else other than bare frames or cars that have the entire front sheet metal removed and everything down to bare frames.
With the variety of bolt on dropped steering arms and dropped axles available these days I would think strongly about going that route over changing the cross member.
Nice clean looking ch***is ...I'm curious if anyone has simply modified (sectioned) the stock crossmember to flattened it out some? Seems it might be easier and cheaper than replacing it.
The 41 Ford pickup front crossmember is deep like that. My dad sectioned the one in my brother's 41 Ford pickup. This was done back in the late 70's and the truck is still on the road today. It worked out well.
...I'm curious if anyone has simply modified (sectioned) the stock crossmember to flattened it out some? Seems it might be easier and cheaper than replacing it.[/QUOTE] Yes, cutting down the stock crossmember is what got the custom one started for me. I have successfully cut down many stock front and rear crossmembers for 35-40 as well as 46-48’s. It’s not too difficult of a job.
My first thought when I saw your frame was; Did your car start out as a 6 cyl ? If it was, maybe you could find a V8 crossmember and swap it out. They are riveted in. I did that on my '41 p/u .
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