Should I leave in the stock 32 crossmember and trim to fit my '53 EAB lower pulley, or install a Model A crossmember?? I was planning on using the dropped axle currently shown, and reverse the eyes on the stock spring, as well as rearranging/ removing some of the spring leaves in the front to get the height down, and reversing the rear eyes and rearranging/ removing some of the spring leaves in the rear also, Id like to get the back down about 5 inches from where it sits now, so that a 7.00-18 fits the rear fender well, but I'm not sure if I can get the front down without using a model A crossmember.
Going with the "A" crossmember is going to get you just about an inch, maybe just a hair more. I would consider it imperative! Oh, and with as high an arch as that front spring has, I would consider buying a reverse eye main leaf and t******* and de-arching the rest of the stock spring leaves to fit. By the time you reverse and de-arch your stocker, your shackle angle is going to be way far from where you would want it.
There is no motor or trans it that pic, so it does have quite an arch, with the flathead in it it flattens out pretty good.
You can always cut the original up to make it have less of a smile. Here is a 34' that was cut up & flattened about 2 1/2" to retain the stock look and accept a stock hemi motor mount.
That is very true. My "A" roadster pickup has an aftermarket "A" crossmember that I basicaly made completely flat. Lots of drop quick! It did require some custom Hoky-Poky with it's radiator tough.
its easiest to put an A in but you can get a stock 32 pretty low without doing anything more than t******* it to suit the 8BA pulley. here is my roadster, stock front cross member and it doesn't sit high it also has an 8BA in it. it also has the original K member and uses the stock front wishbones, it does take a little bit to get this to all work, but worth the effort I think the axle is 3 1/2 drop. some of the setup to get a better idea. think it just comes down to if you want to leave the original x member there coz its original and no chopping up the ch***is. if your planning ch***is mod's the A's the way to go but as I said, you can get your car low enough without using the A X member, it just gives you a really good head start. ( now you know why I contacted you as to the front X member and an 8BA motor)
flatoz, that has a great stance, whats your combo on the springs (f&r), my axle is also about a 3 1/2 drop. Did you see my pics of the firewall clearance on my build thread? are you running 4.50 and 7.00 tires?
front is a new main leaf with reversed eyes and I think 6 or 7 main leaves but mostly the smaller ones. the rear is 6 leaves with the eyes reversed on the main leaf and flattened out about or lowered 5in from memory ( over 10 years ago so I don't remember exactly) car sits and rides ok, ended up 'C' notching the rear though. the front is not notched at all. Front spring is pretty flat. should be able to see it from this photo
I've done it 2 ways. I used a repro A front cross member on the sport coupe. A piece of cake. I cut the stock one on my last frame. I wanted to do it like some guys did it in the 50s. It was a challenge for me. A CMs are just too easy Basically you cut the top out of the CM and raise it up an inch in the middle and then fill in the voids on the sides with plate. The CM is double wall in that area so it's harder to cut out. I was using original Henry radiators so I couldn't get too wild. Either way you get an inch. I did cut the rear flange off to clean it up. When it's ground down it looks original not that that means anything. This would work well if your original CM is broken, cracked and repaired like so many are in that area. You can cut out all the ****py repairs and bubble gum welds and replace it with new metal and lower it an inch all at the same time. I don't know if the repro radiators create the same limitations.
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