hi, workin on a 1951 2 door ford victoria front end and making some changes. i have ordered the aerostar springs and while searching you tube found R.A.C.s channel. this guy was explaining how, using the aerostar springs and with a camber kit, he was flipping the spindles for a combined drop of 4.5-5". sounds great to me but, i also want to convert to disc brakes up front and was wondering if that would still be possible after the spindles are flipped. also, when doing the brake conversion, i understand that i'll need to change to a dual master cylinder. is that correct? what else needs to be changed? lines, hoses etc. lastly, with that kind of a drop, is there anything else that needs to be swapped out? bump stops, steering arms, etc? is that too low?...(is there such a thing as too low!?) new to the shoebox scene and any and all help will be great! oh, i will be running a 8BA with a B.W. 3 spd O.D. have yet to decide on tire size so open to suggestions. thanks
Yes there is a too low. I have a 50 model with the aero springs and it lowered it 2 inches. You dont need to modify the spindles.
Stay far far away from flipping the spindles and buy you a set of dropped spindles with the dropped springs. I know from experience that it does not work even after you cut down the lower an arms and move them inboard to align the front end. You will be buying front tires every few months if you drive it a lot because when you hit the brakes the front end bows out from the downforce and chews the tires up. With my car (‘51 2 dr) I purchased the dropped spindles from Fatman along with the steering arms and used the lowering blocks for the lower A arms to achieve a full 5” drop. I did have new springs I bought for the car from Eaton but kept the factory height for ride prosperity. It was money well spent and I drove the wheels off that car for years and never had an issue with wearing out tires unless I did John Force burnouts in it and had to replace the rear tires.
Anyone that will tell you that Flipped Spindles work well is someone to walk away from, or they just haven't actually driven their project yet. Personally, I do things differently but can't go into details here. NO it's not Fatman or M-2. Been beating the Hell out of this one for 18 years and has 80K+ on the clock wearing it's second set of tires on the front. Rears are a different story.
ok, thanks for the info guys. what about the brakes? besides changing the master cylinder and the disc brake conversion kit, what else will i need? i'm guessing brake lines. anyone make a kit for that or do i need to bend my own? also, pist n broke, what did you do to achieve that stance? it looks great! thanks
I also vote for staying away from flipping the spindles. I put the Aerostar springs on the front with Fatman dropped spindles and a camber kit on my 53. Lowered springs in the back. You have to be careful of rear tire size though so you can remove the tire.
I bought the disc brake kit from scarebird which I do not reccomend since they require grinding on the spindles and I don't want to do that. I used the recommended rotors and went to the U pull it and got the master cylnder, mounting plate and pedal****embly along with the proportioning valve and the medal lines. Got all that from a ( I think )1996 maybe it was a 94 Jeep Cherokee. I poured out the godawful DOT 3. That***** absorbs water that forms a sludge that ruins everything.Its hard to believe DOT 3 is legal. I poured out the DOT 3 and filled it up with DOT 5. Did not even rinse it out. The safety Nazis began screaming. I took a container and put in 1/2 DOT 3 with 1/2 DOT 5 and set it on a shelf and watched it for more than a year. It did not gel, did not mix, did not congeal or anything bad. That was about 15 years ago and the brakes are excellent. Drove it the week before my heart surgery last week. Awesome brakes. I didn't like the hanging brake pedal but with the original brake pedal pad no one notices that the brake pedal hangs and the clutch goes thru the floor. Go ahead safety Nazis, scream all you want. It works, it works VERY well. And Aerostar springs and VW tires (5.60x15)? You don't want it any lower in front.
I flip the bird but not spindles. Buy the dropped spindle kit. People that I know would never flip spindles. I wish that I had $10 for every conversation that I heard on flipping spindles.
If you want a little more drop on a 51 Ford grind the heads off the rivets holding the spring plate to the lower A arm and put a 1" spacer between them and use grade 8 bolts to get another inch of drop.
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