setting up the front end on my 48 F 1. Making the leaf front end work with radius rods. Setting it up for 5 1/2" from bottom of frame rail to the ground with no load on the frame. Should be about 4" or so with engine trans and cab. I think I'm going to have to make the bottom part of the bracket come back farther so my radius rod sits at the right angle. Anybody see any potential problems with running it this way. Thanks a bunch, J.P.
no, I'm not running front fenders. I'm going to set it up kinda like the truck in the coker ad. Just a grille shell up front.
I think you may find the spring is too long for the width of your brackets. Otherwise, I like the brackets you made. Looks good.
do you say that becuase of the angle of the shackles? I spread the brackets out as far as I could. If thats the case, maybe I could re arch the spring to bring in the ends a little bit?
I see where your coming from on the fenderless truck but in my opinion those ones look way better with fenders. Just my 2 cents.
i think youre going to find you'll drop much more than 1.5 inches once the engne and trans sits in. set the radius rods up with the frame at ride hight where it will be with all the weight on it. thats what i just did on my scratch built ch***is. works like a dream. just dont mess up the caster haha
Your spring is too long, move your brackets so the shackles are almost horizontal with no load. Also you keep saying radius rods, but your brackets look to be made for hairpins. Also, while I understand your desire for the fenderless truck route, the example you provided is a 35-40ish range and has a much different lower cowl shaope than your 48-52 F-1 style. The F-1 cowl needs reshaping to look good without fenders. The F-1 cab is also wider than the earlier cab and that creates visual problems as well. Hence the reason people are saying to run fenders..
In some vernacular, radius rods are the same thing as hairpins. Perhaps the confusion comes in because these are "hairpin radius rods": I'm not a fan of any post-'34 fenderless trucks and a fenderless F1 will always look like a rat rod abortion no matter how good the build quality. Build what you want, but don't expect anyone else to like it. .
Yup its gonna bottom the shackles soon as you get some real weight on it.. Your brackets look nice but if i were you id either look for a shorter spring or remake the brackets. Staying with a easily found spring can be a good thing if you have trouble down the road. Dave
yeah, those are the radius rods I'm talking about. Well, it kinda ****s to build something that nobody will like. The truck was free, and came with the front axle and brakes, 4 good wheels, the f1 steering box, and the f1 shock mounts. I've got the ***le for it too, so I guess I couldn't p*** up the deal. If it's that horrible, I could always bolt up an older style cab down the road when I find the right deal. Thanks for your honest opinions, I never really thought anything of it before. J.P.
yeah, that's the shortest spring I could find. 26" eye to eye. I don't have the option to move the brackets out farther. Would rearching the spring work?
Simply redesign your bolt on spring perch brackets to move the perch plate out further to the outside. Try this. Spring is 26" eye to eye, shackles add 1 1/2" each side for a total of 29", add 3/4" per side for pre-tensioning of spring for a total of 30.5 inches. Shift your perch brackets so the bolt-on perch eyes are 30.5" apart center to center. This will give you the tensioning the spring needs to function correctly. Only use the spring main leaf for setup. This will give you a good approximation of ride height before engine/trans etc. weight is added. Then you can put the spring back together and install the drivetrain. Sorry, didn't see the last pic that shows the bracketry is a combination spring mount and radius rod setup. It's still doable but a little more difficult.
Problems, boy have you got problems. Ya, got no frame man. Kinda hard to mount everything without a frame.
I think you'll be fine on weight/drop estimate...with my '36 (pickup) once I laid the 5.0/AOD on it, it only dropped the frontend about 1/2 inch...with the stock traverse spring pack...never added the frontsheetmetal or radiator though, but probably another 150lbs or so up front if I did and maybe drop another scooch of an inch.
Pre 37 trucks sometimes look good without fenders. Anything 1937 to present looks better with fenders.
Not me brother.... The "look" you are after was made popular by a builder named Rudy, usually a 36 Ford PU cab, channeled, and extremely low, running skinny bias plies, on a short wheelbase. Cool look, but one that can't be pulled off by an F1 cab, IMHO. The truck in the ad, if I am not mistaken, was bought by Billy Gibbons a couple of years ago at the Nats in Lousville, built by a guy in KY. Rich
Build it anyway. Fenders are highly over-rated, much easier to work on without fenders or hood. Guys were pulling the fenders decades before the "rat rod" thing came around.
I really appreciate all of your opinions. I agree that the pre 37 cabs look the best. Unfortunately, that would add significant cost to my project at this point. The ad I'm talking about is on the back page of ol skool rods #21 may 2007. As far as moving the brackets out farther, I'm unable to do so because of the bolt alignment on the stock axle. I'm going to try to rearch for now. Maybe by the time I'm ready to bolt on the F1 cab, I'll have found another older cab that will look more period correct. I really appreciate all of your input. thanks, J.P.
That leaf spring looks beefy enough to not compress too much. I say keep building as you are and if you find that the shackles do swing out and hit your brackets once all the weight is on, build other brackets. ****s to redo your work but in a few weeks you'll forget what a ***** it was to make your first brackets and you'll be ready to make new ones . This is a tough crowd of ******** traditionalists but is this truck for you or them?
The truck is for me, but I am open to suggestions and I respect everyone taking the time to give me their opinions instead of skipping to the next topic. I'd like to build something that I like, and something that will make the traditionalists smile too! The worst part about it was that I actually thought the F1 cab would look good.
I re-arched the spring to bring the eyes closer together (I couldn't move the brackets any farther out). The shackles sit closer to level now.
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