59-64 rear susp. in 56 chevy, poor mans 4 link

Some time ago I had that sick idea to upgrade my 56 chevy rear by using a 62 Chevy rear suspension along with airbags.Now, that most of the welding and fabricating is done I thought you guys might like to see some pics. If not, I´m sorry for stealing your time.
Here we go: p***enger side control arm. I hope I didn´t take too much strength out by drilling those holes. Just thought it looked good

I had some trouble with the front control arm brackets: They happened to go just right where the body mounts used to be. Now they´re kinda body mount control arm brackets

 

The Panhardbar bracket is not completly done yet, I guess it ought to be strenthend by welding a rear plate to it


For upper control arm clearance I had to modify the trunk floor a bit, right next to the spare wheel well.

The upper control arm to frame bracket will need some reinforcement to, I might be ripped off without one.
Anyway, until now it was twice as much work as I supposed it to be before I started. Another 2 weeks should be enough

The next step is to find a good place for the airbags. Should I better place them on top of the control arms or right onto the axle housing?

 

looks good, if you go with the bags on the lower arms, Id find the right size tube and weld them thru the holes you drilled, that will effectively 'box' the arm and make it strong enough to support the bags.
Im working out my four bar system now for my A model...its hard enough without all the space issues youve got!

 

looks good man. did somethign similar to my pontiac, but used a 93 buick roadmaster as the donor. cool stuff.

 

Thanks lowsquire,for the tube idea, sounds good!
I just left the axle on the leaf springs and lowering blocks when I welded all the brackets in. That made it easier for me to align the axle. Space issues weren´t that bad. What are you using for your Model A rear?

chromedrat, is your Buick rear a 4-link or a 3-link setup?

 

Here are some update pics. I decided to put the bags onto the axle because of lack of space above the control arms.
I ´ll better go back out in the garage and make some shock brackets and finish the welding stuff.

 

I'd suggest boxing in the bottom part of the control arms for strength. They're a little on the flimsy side in the first place and the drilling didn't help any.

 

Thanks for the hint!The control arms will have to handle some torsion, too ,since I welded the shock mounts to the inner side of the control arms. What do you think: Which thickness should the boxing plate be to be stiff enough?

 

Same thickness of the arm.

 

Here are some update pics. The easter holidays are a perfect time for a paintjob

I forgot to paint the panhard bar.... as ever

Yes, I did box the lower control arms but unfortunately you can hardly see it on the pics.

 

Some frame modifications..

 

And the last one.

 

Looks great...Nice work.