You know what happens when you ask too many people.... I've got a 1952 pontiac hardtop, its complete but needs some floor work, I ditched the straight 8 in trade to a older local pontiac nut for some pieces to be named later. I have a running 1970 pontiac 350/th350 yet to be swapped in. I'm intending on fabbing a front engine plate for the 350 w/ tabs and donuts built up off the front crossmember in an effort to give the exhaust room to miss the stock steering setup. I whacked 1 1/4 coils off my previous 52 pontiac 2 door post project. It just wasn't low enough, hit the stops all the time. This is where I thought the dropped spindles may help. Now here is where I got too damn much advice. I'd rather stay away from the mustang II front setup, too many of them, but there is a reason everyone is using them. My plan was to buy a set of dropped spindles, find caliper brackets for manual disc brakes and just deal with the manual steering. I'd estimate I've shed 250 lbs on the pointiac 350/th350 vs straight eight/hydro. Will the steering be any lighter, or am I kidding myself? I have a few older locals including the pontiac nut who wish they would have done a fatman mustang kit or clipped their early 50's in the first place, before they dropped a shit load of time and effort trying to mix and match. As a result one of these guys gave me the complete frame stub, crossmember and drum to drum front susp setup from his 1953 pointiac when he changed directions. At this point in the project I'm way too poor to drop a couple grand in a fatman or air bag front susp. I want to enjoy this thing while I build my dads 32 truck, then maybe I tear it back down if I am really unhappy with it. Are the mustang II heavy enough to put up with the shitty Montana roads and the heavy nose of this pontiac? If I swap to a later model PS setup with a matching steering gear etc, I expect that I will have to have a new steering arm fabricated (by someone who really knows how to weld). What are the chances I'll find a turning radius close and have to hassle with setting up new stops? What about a swapping a more shallow gm front crossmember with the correct track dimension? Maybe a mid 60's buick riviera? I did see a recent post with a low rider article on fabbing up an air ride using the stock spring cups. And the options/ideas just keep spinning around s.
KustomBuilder sells a wicked 4 Bag kit for under 800$ has all the parts except the bag mounts wihich are not hard to make. how low do you want to be?
I'm looking for a mild kustom, its not important to lay the frame on the ground, it is important that the direction I pick not back me into a corner and have to shit can the work I've done. I'd rather not find out after the fact that the combination I've decided on has an ugly bump steer or screwed up front steering geometry and/or the manual steering and manual brakes don't work well enough for me to toss my wife, family or friends the keys without worrying they will pile it because its not setup right. The only complaint I want to have is that I didn't get 50k miles out of a set of tires. I had a 1950 chev pickup, with a RB's obsolete front susp kit that I chased alignment settings and always needed to be steered out of turns. I'll look into the "kustombuilder" bag setup. s.
http://www.scarebird.com/6928.html 145$ Disk Conversion Brackets you need to buy the rotors and calipers. the Fatman drop spindles are 2 1/2" and are 380$ the beauty of an airbag setup is that if you need to cram an extra 5 guys to the tune of 1000 pounds in, you can add more psi to compensate for the drop. i got the setup from KustomBuilder, he's a member here. it's an all digital setup, so no wonky switches, just program and ride. This is all going on a '56 Buick. one thing i'd like to point out is that in 1952, people put their families in there cars and everything was fine without Mustang II IFS and disk brakes...
I am getting ready to put a 67 camaro sub frame under my 50 buick its a perfect fit. may want to check it out. it will give you disc brakes and a better ride
Be aware that the mid sixties Riviera frame is an X frame with no side rails.Limits trans adaption, needs short shaft.
On my 53 my whole front end is stock with one coil cut off, its not low enough but pull into a drive too fast and it bottoms out the a arms. I think they must have really soft springs in them. My inline 8 is gone in favor of a 472 caddy and that only weighs about 50 pounds more then a small chevy which is way lighter then the stock engine. I did find that a early 80's monte or similar car has the same track width and parts are still cheap for them.
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