rear ideas and questions on a 29 A sedan

i'm currently building a car for a friend, its a really clean 29 sedan plans call for a clean old style driver, five inch magnum drop axle in front, channel, flathead with s10 five speed trans, the goal is to get the whole car nine inches lower, five in the suspension and four in the channel, plan on making the rear axle behind instead of axle over with a slight frame kick
So my main inquiry is to figure out what kind of rear i wanna use, the stock rear is 57 and a half inches from axle flange to axle flange, and i want to find something in the 60inch range, because i don't wanna cut the body up in the wheel wells, nothing too stout cuz i'm just runnin a flat head, s10 rear, ranger rear? i figure some of u kats would know whats been done before or what some rear dimensions would be, i have around 15 inches of snow here or i'd be rollin around in the junk yard,
Also- can i retain the cowl gas tank if i run a flathead slightly raised up, with the channel and stock radiator location?
i really wanna be able to put the hood back on this thing when its done
Any two cents would be appreciated
thanks

 

explorer rears are cheap, plentiful, and many have disc brakes. It is spring under axle. either 3.75 or 4.11???

bob

 

If your building a model A, the problem will be to find one narrow enough that the tires don't stick out too far. Early Ford 9 inch from 57 or 58 or one of the early style Ford Broncos would be a decent choice. I don't fully understand if you are talking about spring location or not when you state axle behind or over. 1938 through 41 rear axles can be set up for open drive & juice brakes and they have the spring mounted behind the axle or mounts can be installed to put the spring on top like an A-bone. Spring behind would require some frame mods to mount the spring but it does help lower the car quite a bit.

 

If you find the correct banjo rear out of a 40s truck, theyre already set up for open drive.

 

i plan on making the car a spring behind instead of ontop, just thinking about finding a rear that is already open drive, drum brakes, and since u really won't see the rear, it doesn't matter if its a banjo or not, and i know it has to be pretty wide, but it will look ok, the plan is to have the top of the tire even with the quarter panel fender bolt line, the car is not running fenders

 

84+ Toyota 4x4 pickup trucks use a 58" WMS to WMS axle. The bolt pattern is 6 lug Chevy. The same year 2WD trucks use a similar axle in 5 lug configuration. 95+ Toyota Tacoma's use a 60" WMS to WMS axle, 6 lug bolt pattern.

The 84-95 Toyota 4x4 trucks come with 8" rear diff and 30 spline axles, and can be easily converted to disc brakes. The diff is stronger than a Dana 44.

Plentiful, strong, light, and cheap.