Hot Rods See anything unusual or different on this front suspension?

I’ve admired this car for 40 years or more and I can’t believe I’ve never noticed this on it before. I’m studying all the pics I can find of it to pick out all the details I can and just now noticed this. Everyone I’ve seen that said they saw it in person says the attention to detail was remarkable, but I’ve never noticed it before. Maybe it’s not all that unique and I’ve just never noticed, but I can’t think of ever seeing another set up like this.
Sorry for the quality of pictures that’s all I have to work with right now. Take a look at these pictures and see if you notice anything about the way this front suspension is set up.

 

only one shackle

 

I can’t believe I’ve never noticed that before. I can’t think of seeing any others set up like that. I assume they just wanted to locate the axle that way instead of the typical 2 shackles with or without a panhard bar. I don’t think there is any other advantage to setting it up that way that I can think of, I wouldn’t think it has something to do with the way the friction shocks are attached to the end of the frame rails?

 

Dead perch

 

are they lever shocks fixed to end of chassis ?
No radiator.
Looks like no front brakes.
The more I look, - the more I see and wonder………….

 

Got any pics for us of the whole car?

 

An old dirt track trick; my mod has one. Also notice the other side is not fixed and just slides on the axle.

 

Yeah, friction shocks on the ends of the frame rails. I’m trying to figure out the axle end. I think it must have short links from the shock arms to the axle

 

The 1959 version:


Hello,
My brother and I saw the early injected version in photos and magazines. But, to hear it for the first time and see the latest version as teenagers was, as one could say: "Awe-inspiring." It was a masterpiece of Hot Rod/Drag Racing roadster. Built for "a quarter mile at a time..." This was in December of 1959.


Jnaki

To quote one of my favorite T-shirts: "Old News Travcls Fast..."

 

The Orange Crate was built out of a parted out Sprint Car, thus the dead perch and live axe rear.

 

Dead perch’s are not uncommon on hot rod chassis, they are in use in quite a few local builds. Rear parallel leaf springs normally only have one shackle so that set up on a cross spring beam or tube axle should not be too obscure. The chassis in the lead photo is cool because it has an Ardun, and not cool because it lacks front brakes.

 

I can't find anything that shows or explains how the friction shocks are set up on the Scotty's roadster.


It could have had links between the ends of the shock levers and the axle similar to the pic above.
There are more pics here: https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/116698.html?1260323226

Other ways to do it would be to have a horizontal slot in the ends of the levers that located on pins(???) on the axle, or the ends of the levers could just have sat against something and simply slid/rubbed as the suspension cycled.

This pic you posted might show a slot in the lever located on a pin/shaft attached to the hairpin........ or it might not.

 

Lacking front brakes was a pretty standard thing on the 50s & 60s drag cars. Almost none of the FEDs or the class drag cars had front brakes back then. Not so cool now, but pretty standard for the fastest drag cars of that era.

 

Have you found a source for the frame rails?

(I sure couldn't.)

 

I’d also say the whole front end was sourced from a sprint car. Note the six lug hubs and wheels.

 

It’s been pretty discouraging to say the least, I appreciate all the help and suggestions I’ve got trying to figure this out.
I’m still waiting to hear back from a couple sources in China, but after about 2 months of calls and e-mails to dozens of places all I have found that’s on hand and pretty close was some .049 streamline 4130 tubing that Aircraft Spruce has. I’m running out of options. The guy that restored the Bell 303 car said they used tubing they got from Aircraft Spruce but that was over a decade ago and it appears they had more options available back then than they have now. The really interesting part is, all the mention in the old magazines about it being wing struts from PBY planes looks to have turned out to be not accurate. With the help from some PBY restoration guys, I’ve found out the PBY struts are considerably larger and no way are theses frame rails made from those wing struts. I suspect this tubing (that was sold at Military surplus stores around LA area after the war) was used for some other part on planes or other military purpose but not those specific struts. I almost ordered the .049 stuff yesterday, it looks pretty close in size and shape I’m just not happy about the .049 part. It used to be available from Plymouth Tube in .065 which I’d be a lot happier with than the .049, and is probably what the Bell 303 restoration used but they stopped producing it several years ago. I knew this would be difficult, but damn….I can’t even get started on the chassis. Who’d have thought the Hilborn injected Ardun would be the easy part? I bought some .065 oval shaped stainless just to get a feel for the size. It’s made from 3” and it looks a bit large. The streamline is made from 2 1/2” and seems like it’s pretty close. At some point I’m gonna have to either go with the .049 or try to come up with a plan to form some myself or something. I want to get building. I did find an NOS Halibrand 201 center to build the quick change and I bought a steering gear that looks pretty close (although it’s not chrome) so in the meantime, I sit around at night studying details from the pictures. I can’t believe I’ve never noticed this dead perch set up until now!

 

I agree, or maybe a midget? the front wheels are 6 pin midget wheels for sure

 

I think it’s cool because of the elliptical shaped tubing, but it hasn’t been very cool to try to buy some….so far the only stuff I can even purchase is $106.00 @ foot and it’s only about half the wall thickness I want it to be… but I guess of it were very easy, someone else would already have tried this.

 

I see that none of it appears to be intended for any practical, road use driving (which is my only interest in any car, whether old or modern).

 

Good thing this isn’t your car then. Pretty sure Russco will enjoy building the thing, and cackling the Ardun down the track at a future HAMB Drags (Ryan’s gotta do another if you get the car done!).

 

Yeah cool Hot Rods ain’t for everyone, after all…4 doors need love too….right?

 

Dead perches are a time-tested modification to Ford front suspensions:

 

Hey @Russco
Have you tried these guys for the elliptical tube?
https://www.louisianasteel.com/elliptical-steel-tubing.html

 

Yes, they were pretty helpful. They are the only one in the US that said they can and were willing to do a small run, but they charge a 3 grand tool up fee and they are 10 weeks out.

 

Maybe ask them if they sell the size you want to anyone else in the US. You never know, you might get lucky...

 

Here's a dumb question which probably won't work, what are the dimensions of the tubing you're looking for? Is there any way you could put the real frame structure inside the thin-wall tubing?

I don't like the idea of .049 wall tube for a frame, but if it was more cosmetic purposes and the real frame rails were inside and you could just shroud the chassis with the tubing, it would work. However, I am guessing it wouldn't work well dimensionally.

 

How many feet is a small run for them?

 

That’s a cool set up.

I’d run it

 

I only need about 20 feet, but I told them I would be willing to buy 100 if it would help. Most of the places that have minimum orders are like several thousand feet (10k to 20k feet) or one place had a minimum order of 5 tons. Without getting political this is basically what has happened to our ability to manufacture stuff like we used to. There are several places in China that do. But I can’t seem to get any response back from them when I messaged them. I assume probably the same thing as here on a small run. There was one place in the UK but they aren’t making any right now either. There were a couple places here that did produce it 5-10 years ago that no longer do, or are even in business anymore.