While taking my 50 Plymouth survivor car apart to install new brakes I noticed that the shock only goes from a arm to a arm. How can this work??? I took the shock off and closed it all the way, found out it is 8 inches from center to center. Went to the local carquest, found a shock that looked good to me. I started to build an upper mount for the shock and a friend called me. He had never heard of such a thing. Looked in parts books and found out that fatman makes a kit, but uses a different shock than I wanted to use. I figured out how to build a shock mount that will work on the application that I want to use. A friend wanted me to show him how to do this, so if one guy wants this I think there might be others that are interested. I put together these pictures and blueprint in case someone else wants to do this. There is a left and a right. Make the angle of the piece fit the frame on each side. The blueprint, box showing the part I used are attached to this post. I will add a message with the rest of the pictures
If you observed the original shock as the suspension worked up and down you would see that they move, just not as much as the ones that are anchored to the frame. In those days Chrysler built cars had the best shocks on the market, called Oriflow shock absorbers. They were the first shocks to automatically adjust themselves for rough or smooth roads. Chrysler had the most advanced tubular shocks when most car makers were still using the old fashioned lever action shocks. Car buyers demanded a soft floaty ride. Handling and cornering power were not a consideration. The original setup still works but you can get more modern handling with a fixed shock mounting.
When I first saw this setup on one, I thought the same thing. They are mounted at different points on the arms so are mildly "triangulated".
Yeah, 1st to use tube shocks & then fumbled the ball on placement. You can get, or make, shock relocation kits. Think Mr. Street Rod & Butch's Cool Stuff has them.
Their are a myriad of guys building kits for these, but it is so simple to make your own i do not know why anybody would buy one. By the way Ma Mopar had quite few firsts before the others so don't knock them.
Chrysler pioneered the safety rim wheel which kept tires from leaving the rim when deflated. Also first to use the modern rotary door safety latches.
Apart from the aftermarket Shock mount shown you can use the cast steel front shock mounts that mopar cars used in 37/38 as well as the front shock mounts from the 46-early 50's Mopar Pilothouse pickup trucks and the Ford F1 copies will also work......as mentioned the stock mopar IFS front shock mount geometry was the same from 39-56 so mother must have been doing something right.........lol.........andyd
Thanks all I'll be doing this soon. Thinking of using gas shocks hoping my Ply. won't bottom out as much because I cut one coil from the front springs.
I built these mounts out of 2" flatbar and they cost next to nothing. Anyone with a welding machine can do this. I am a 72 year old hobbyist and this is one of my tinkers, except for the shocks, it cost about $4.00. If you want cutout patterns, let me know and I will mail them to you.
Thanks for the information. I enjoyed looking at your setup. The reason I didn't go like you did is because I can buy a ten inch shock anywhere and put it on the setup I did. It is a little more complicated than yours and fatman sells one similar to your setup. We put a set of those on a 50 Desoto. When we went to change shocks 6 years later we had a hard time finding a shock to fit. It is good to hear from you, Thank you for looking.
We'll probably both find that out at about the same time. I have a little more brake work to do. Need any more information let me know. I figure with my dinking around with s****s it cost me about $4.00 plus the price of the shocks.
Another first pioneered by Mopar was the concept, which was later proven many times over, of entertaining a young, and presumably bosomy, lady in the back seat with the intention of performing various methods of ***ual ***********.
...me thinks that posts like this are a good way to close a thread. Perhaps you would reconsider this and use the 'delete' ****on. .
Don't forget, they had hydraulic brakes in the late 20's! Mopar has been pioneers on everything automotive..... except rust proofing!!
Chrysler never gets credit for pioneering. They come up with things like hydraulic brakes, tubular shocks, padded dash, air conditioning, 3 speed torque converter auto trans, the first American front wheel drive economy car, the front wheel drive minivan and things like that. Everyone else copies them and soon it's "so what, everybody has that". GM pioneers things you can really see and remember like 16 cylinder engines, air cooled rear engines, air bag suspension, transmissions with 2 fluid couplings, aluminum brake drums and other dead ends. So they get the credit for a the wild new inventions (that turn out to be useless) while Chrysler gets no credit for inventing things everyone uses.
I hope you are not talking about the Plymouth Horizon / Dodge Omni, because 1) it was just a Simca and 2) the Ford Fiesta came out 2 years earlier. (neither one was American designed) The Chevy Citation was probably the First true American front wheel drive economy car. The Cord 810 was the first US front wheel drive car and then the Olds Toronado, but they weren't exactly "economy cars"
Yes I am talking about the Plymouth Omni/Horizon which was made in Detroit and was a major redesign of the Simca with very little in common (different engine, trans, suspension, interior, modified body etc.). It was the first front wheel drive economy car made in the US. Today every economy car is front wheel drive but in 1977 such cars were only made in Europe and Japan. The Fiesta was in fact designed in Detroit, like all other English made Fords since the twenties, but was built in England not the US. Omni/Horizon was the first US made front drive subcompact. The Citation was a contemporary of the K car and came along 5 years after the Omni. Ford's first US made front drive subcompact, the ******, came after the Citation. I would give full credit to the Olds Toronado as a tour de force of engineering, style and construction. In 1965 it blew the world away as the biggest, heaviest, most powerful front drive car ever conceived. And it did it with NO compromise and no glitches. It ran and drove like any other good car of its times. But it was copied by nobody (except Cadillac Eldorado) and started no trend to front wheel drive luxury cars in the US. Ironically, they did a better job in 1965 out of thin air, than they did with the Citation with 15 years experience.
The Omni Horizon twins had substantial European origins; the car was actually developed by Simca, the French division of Chrysler Europe, before that company was sold to Peugeot, which released the car as the Talbot Horizon. But you right they did make changes for the American built version. Actually the Citation was only Two years after the Omni (Chevy introduced them in 1980) and 4 years after the Fiesta. But hell none of this has anything to do with Hot Rods and Customs
Changes from Simca to Omni: Completely different engine and trans, bought from VW (modified VW Rabbit) later replaced by Mopar's own design of 2.2L engine Completely different suspension. Ironically the Simca had torsion bars, long a Chrysler feature. They replaced it with a coil spring McPherson strut system. Completely different interior, seats, instrument panel etc. Body modified to accommodate the above changes, plus bigger wheel wells. By law American cars must have room for tire chains. They had to enlarge the wheel wells for this reason. There were other changes like changing metric to inch fittings and fasteners, door handles and other details. In the end there was not much left of the Simca but the silhouette.
Rust proofing--- we live in the state of Washington and if anyone can pioneer in that we are all for it. I just sold my 33 5 window coupe because it looked like a career in changing out rusted panels.
I used 1009 Monroe/Regal Ride (50's Mopar) shocks on the front of hot rods for year. I don't think they are available anymore though.
Like your slogan, you are so right there is truly a difference inbuilding and decorating. When other guys are bragging about how much they spent on cars I'm chuckling about how cheap I built mine. and they look pretty good. and they are SAFE. No ratty rods here. I have a friend in Bald Knob Arkansas and he would like to have my T, my avatar and my car
That T was built as it is in the picture in 1965. I have 3 engines for it and one will let me run bottom of the 12s.
I've never worked on a front wheel drive car. They are just tooo new for me. I'm still working on 20's, 30's 40's just looks too complicated to pull the engine and ****** together. As his partner, however, and his typist I had a 1981 buick skylark with a v6 and 4 on the floor. I loved it. It finally died after 225 thousand miles because a daughter in law that inherited it let it overheat.
The Jalopy Journal
