I'm new to this so please forgive my stupidity. I recently acquired a 1939 ford pu and a friend of mine has a 2000 ford mustang that he is willing to sell me and I would like to hear from anybody on using the mustang front end under the 39. Weather it being the front clip or just the tang cross member. As a teen and a young adult I was heavy into rodding but now I'm a 66 year old raisin and there is a lot I don't know so any help would be very much appreciated.
I could be wrong but you want the mustang 2 style front end.there are lots of kits out there. What are your goals with this p.u.? You doing the work yourself?
too willymakit :My goals with the truck are to up grade the suspension and put a 302 small block in it and give it some nuts. I do want to keep it looking as stock as possible but with a better ride and stopping power.
2000 Mustang stuff will not work at all. No way. Your best bet is to rebuild the original front end, using a dropped axle and maybe a reversed eye spring. A lot of guys use '74-'78 Mustang II style front ends, but It is not worth it in my opinion (I have both).
Voodootwin There isn't a heck of a lot wrong with the stock suspension. I just want to improve the ride and stopping power and give it some umf with a 302 small block. In my younger days I've played around with my share of flatheads and want a little more power than that.
thanks metal man, I didn't know that about the mustang. I'll see if I can't come up with a mustang II or a s10 setup
You will need to do a few things to use the original front end. Split the wishbone to make room for the 302 and trans.There are nice kits available that do this job,while also replacing the center crossmember in the frame's X-member with something you can use to mount a modern transmission. Splitting the wishbone will require heating and bending the spring mounts that hang off the front of the wishbone, so the spring will still fit. Replace spring shackles and bushings Replace king pins and bushings in the spindles Upgrade your brakes as you feel necessary. Your '39 should already have hydraulic drum brakes, which in my opinion are fine,but I don't feel the need to have power brakes. Replace the axle with a forged dropped axle. Make sure you get the right one that fits your wishbone. The dropped axle will require the heating and dropping of the steering arms to keep clearance between the tie rod/drag link and the wishbone. You will probably need to rebuild the steering box,or it is easy to bolt on a later model GM box to replace it. This is all basic easy stuff, and won't require much frame modification.
Given the choice, you should use a Mustang II kit over an S10, but please don't be afraid to use the original type I-beam stuff. We can walk you through it
This has a 4" drop axle and a reversed eye front spring minus a few leaf's and bone stock hydraulic drum brakes. It rides like a dream. It hauls azz, it dyno'd at 375HP and the brakes are not "spooky" at all. Stops great. When I first finished it it sat much lower, so these can be "slammed" with a straight axle if thats what you're after. It also has a Vega steering box and panhard bar in front, and parallel rear leaves. These are before I raised it back up a little. If I were to do it again I wouldn't change a thing. It's good to know there's other guys out there bringing some '39's back to life. Have fun man, whatever you decide to do with it. Rob.
You can tune that stock front end so it rides nicely. I think you might have to get a rear sump oil pan to run the 302, if it doesn't have one already. There many kits out there to put disk brakes on so you have modern stopping power.
i can tell you right now S10 will not work as the steering box sits too far foward! Just add the disc's and better box with dropped axle then add the 302 My 38 pickup has 50 for car front end and i would gladly welcome the stock stuff back, simple!
^^He is right^^ and that would be my first plan. Done right it can be very nice and ride as well as MustangII for about the same money. This is my plan for my own 39 Ford Pickup however I want to keep the flathead. Remember I can only be original/traditional once, once converted to MII its hard to go back.
YOu might want to look into a Ch***is Engineering front suspension kit (independent). They have a adjustable feature that lets you dial in the final ride height after you get the vehicle on the road. Good people to deal with and their products are bulletproof. Frank
My thoughts for what they are worth, O. You are not likely to be driving the 39 long distances at our age [I'm 67] due to limited space in cab. I currently have MII under two cars [40 and 46] but have had axle cars prior to these. The difference is not worth it for an around town driver. My next project is a 40 tudor aqnd it will be an axle car.
I put a TCI MII in my '38. Whatever it hit in 1972 ruined the original front end and restoring that was more expensive than putting the TCI in. The biggest draw back to that installation is that the radiator mounting tabs get whacked to fit the TCI unit. The whole front end clip is keyed to those tab locations. You need to figure a way to get the radiator back in the right place after you go that route.
Dig a little deeper in your research other than what you see all the followers doing and you will find that a upgraded early ford front end is just as good or better. Iv seen quite a few people say that they wish they’d not done the MII and or clips.
If you want to be traditional than keep the traditional front end.. People on here probably will like you better...
I;m with keep the original style front end,.....There's a lot of disc brake adapter kits available,...such as from Magnum Axel. and others, all good. Ch***is Engineering (and others) has the X-member mod kits for just about any trans you plan to use,..just let them know. Saginaw steering boxes are a good fit, easy to find, and reasonably priced. There are myriad bolt in mounts available for those, making that easy to do. That's a super looking 39, Keep us posted !!! Happy Roddin'.... 4TTRUK
The Jalopy Journal
