hey guys im puttin a fatman fabrications ultra low mustang 2 front end on my 1951 chevy tudor sedan, an to be honest i haven't started it yet i have everything to bag the car, i am havin troubles even findin the axle centerline, can somebody give me a hand im just a kid!
Yes...50Chevy.com will be your friend during this install. ***uming you still have all the front suspension on the car, the engine and ****** out, and all the sheetmetal removed, it's not too tough. Here's one way: You'll want to jack up the car making sure it's level front to back and side to side. Get yourself a plumb-bomb...if you don't have one, any hardware store should carry 'em. Tie the plumb-bob to something so that you can hang it down along the center of the current spindle (I like to use two tall jackstands with a piece of square stock clamped to the tops of 'em to hang my PB...easy to adjust) and to the point that the PB almost touches the floor. Make a mark on the floor where the plumb-bob points and then do the same for the other side. Connect those points and you have the centerline reference point. It's probably obvious, but make sure you don't move you car. You can mark the floor at the front of your frame rails using the same technique and mark the frame rail where the string for the plumb-bob ran. This way, if something does move, you can put it back. Now you can remove all the front suspension and cross-member. Once you do, use your plumb-bob trick to point to the centerline and mark the frame where the string runs. I like to use a square against the frame-rail for this and mark the frame at the top and bottom...and then connect the marks. Do the same for both sides and then measure the heck out of everything to make sure it's square. There's always a possibility that the frame has a little tweak or that something's off kilter as far as the suspension goes. You should be able to find a reference point on your frame...one of holes for the stock cross-member bolt...that you can measure from as a reference point. The distance should be the same on both sides. From there, you should have instructions for your top-hats and where to locate them in relation to the centerline. I've been told that the center of the bolt-head closest to the firewall in the "V" bracket is the axle-centerline on '49-52s, but I found mine to be just a little off of that. You can check yours to find out and maybe it'll work for you. I suggest you do a little research on this before jumping in. Some of the magazine websites like Rod and Custom may have tech articles on suspension installs and may have tips for finding your centerline. Oh yeah, and make sure you can weld or get some one who can to take care of your cross-member, etc. Keep in mind, MIIs are OT here on the HAMB, so you may not always get the help or responses you're looking for. That's my dos centavos, good luck. Bryan
wow dude, thank you so much, thanks for taking the time to actually explain this to me i really really appreciate it, hopefully i can jump into it this week, i have everything to do it, any advice on notching the rear?
You're welcome...check out this thread for the notch: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123065&highlight=gambino There's a ton of great info here in the archives on the subjects you mentioned, so when you have a few days when you don't feel like leaving the house, check 'em out Bryan
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