Hot Rods How did he do it?

I missed seeing this car at the LA Roadster swap meet, but it intrigues me.
Where is the front spring(s)? Did anybody see it?

 

Nice clean job, I would like to see it stuck a little further out since its suicide but its a clean look. That truck would make a super modified the way they tucked the frame in with the body

 

Torsion bars inside the frame rails? Dennis Varni did this on his '29 Hiboy....

 

Here it is....

 

I saw a guy on TV last night make a whole church choir disappear in a big box. after seeing that a car without any springs for suspension is not that big of a deal.

I'd say it is done by magic.

 

You guys crack me up.
Magic is deception, and he did a good job of it.
If it has torsions they must attach to the wishbones cause I can't see anything in these pictures.
That's why I hoped somebody saw it up close.

 

If I were to hazard a guess, spring behind the radiator. Just the angle of the shot obscuring the shackles and perches.

Could also be torsion bars mounted in the same way.

 

installed on wishbones.

 

Since I don't see anything else high tech I'm buying the spring in the stock location solution. It looks like at least the forward end of the wishbones has been extended with what I would suspect is heavy wall rectangular tubing, and now I lever shocks. Anyway I like it a lot.........kudos to whoever built it!

 

I am pretty sure it's 1/4 elliptics front and rear, I know for a fact in the rear and it is NOT torsion bars....bitchin car. He drove there from southeastern Wisconsin and then hit the nsra show in pueblo on the way back. Oh yeah, he's in Louisville this weekend if anyone wants to check it out. The owners name is John, good guy.

 

The front is a transverse spring mounted to the wishbones. Shackle on the passenger side and dead perch on the drivers.

 

Neat little car for sure, however, I have never been a fan of mounting the leaf spring hangers on that part of the wishbone tube.

They aren't made for loads in that direction and the whole mount acts like a lever wanting to rip the wall of the wishbone tube off. If you have to mount the spring hangers on the wishbone, do it up front at the forged end area.

Yea, it will probably be fine forever, but it is just one of the things I try to avoid.

Bitchn little car though.. -Abone.

 

dontlift,

Thanks for clearing that up. I doubt that I'll get a chance to see that car unless he makes another trip out here.
I'll bet that longer wheelbase smoothes the ride a bit.

 

He makes that trip every couple years so you might get a chance to see it up close in 2013.....

 

Omigosh, 49ratfink! Ya got me laughing and I can't stop! Mrs Arkie thinks I've lost it!

 

Springs are for sissies. Sold mount.

 

Agree 100 percent. The direction of the spring shackles is the direction the force is applied on the wishbone. In this case the force pulling the bones in is almost equal to the force in vertical direction. The mount being almost in the middle of the bone leads to the worst load condition for the bone. In a stock set up there are practically no bending forces except under braking conditions.
My buddy tried the same set up using hairpins with a boxing plate where the shackle mounts. It was not a pretty sight. It must have pulled the hairpins in about an inch or so. Good thing the car was undrivable and he switched to a stock set up.

 

Guys, I am not discounting anyone's concerns, in fact I feel the same way about this sort of spring mount. However, he has 10,000 miles (hard miles, I might add) on this car since June. The only thing that broke was the drivers side steering arm (speedway). And there are lots of cars that run a similar setup with no problems as well.

 

How would that setup handle on the road?

 

I actually went a little overboard mounting mine that way. I made a heavy plate to hook over the tube near the front axle. If his has been fine, I'm golden.

 

This seems a very nicely built car and I don't question your statement for a second. I think it's more important to point out potential shortfalls of such design changes. I have seen plenty of wishbones which were rusted out to a point where they would have collapsed under the weight of the car in this configuration with the car standing still. Other things to consider by moving the mounting point in the middle of the bone are the requirement for stiffer spring - moving the mounting point to the middle doubles the load on the spring for example.

Wicked50coupe's setup only slightly changes the stock configuration with the attachment point near the forged end of the bone. The only thing I am not totally sold on is that the perch is attached to a flat tab rather than the bone itself. I'd personally gusset the tab to make sure it can't bend, but I can't really see how thick and wide the thing is. It may be perfectly fine...