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What's the "traditional" way to make a car handle?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by corsair, Jul 16, 2009.

  1. corsair
    Joined: May 16, 2009
    Posts: 287

    corsair
    Member

    I'm not sure if others have had issues with the strength of the control arms, but they look pretty dang substantial to me. I've seen trucks with lighter pieces. Of course, with radial tires and a 700lb motor crushing them into the earth I could be wrong... Anybody had to mod the arms on a late 50's Ford?

    Now getting back to brakes, I understand the logic behind scoops and drilled backs. That said, is it a street friendly mod? Seems like it's just asking for water to get in there and wipe out your brakes. Would I be a rain storm away from peril if I perform cooling mods?

    Now as far as discs, I understand the Granadas fit and are a de facto drop spindle, but need modification to work? How difficult is the work? Better just to buy pre-altered units from Fatman? I've also heard that LTD II/early 80's T-bird spindles fit perfectly. Can anybody verify?

    As for the master cylinder, I know I need to upgrade to a dual pot. Seems like there's lots of options too. I have a booster stock on this car, but are power brakes necisary? i.e. will a well sized Wilwood work just as well (while looking infinately better on the firewall)? Also, is it best to decide on drum/drum or disc/drum before selecting the MC?
     
  2. dontlifttoshift
    Joined: Sep 17, 2005
    Posts: 652

    dontlifttoshift
    Member

    No fatman spindles! granada is the way to go.

    While it is true that the panhard swings in an arc with a pnahard near the width of the frame the side to side movement would be less than an 1/8". The simplicity of the panhard bar makes it the easy choice over a watts link for this car and what you want to do, IMHO. We have set up several leaf spring cars with panhard bars and they just need to be level at ride height and as long as possible and will work very well.

    As far as truck arms go - awesome! it will be while before I get them on my edsel but I had them on my 48 chevy pickup with air bags. the geometry is also the same as the pete and jakes ladder bars that are under thousands of hot rods today.

    Somebody listed books to read earlier and I would like to add Chassis Engineering by Herb Adams. Good Luck!
     
  3. This is trick question...I believe you mean "herding", not "handling"!!!:D
     
  4. corsair
    Joined: May 16, 2009
    Posts: 287

    corsair
    Member

    RMT, you make a very good point about project creep. My aim here is really not to completely re-engineer the car at all. To tell you the truth, I'm pleasantly surprised at how capable the chassis looks in terms of design. That said, ALL suspension tuning is a matter of compromise. I am 100% sure that the Edsel designers were more interested in a pillowy ride than anything else. My personal preference is for a firmer, more controlled ride. Since my stock stuff is all worn out, and I want it lower anyway, it's not really more involved to re-tune while I'm repairing. The only additional work is a bit of strengthening here and there to deal with increased loads.

    It seems like a watts linkage would be far better suited to leaves than a panhard. Has anybody tried using one from a 98+ Crown Vic? They had a watts from the factory. I'll measure one up the next time I hit the JY and see if it could be retrofited. I have to say, it would be pretty funny to see a fancy bit of kit like a Watts used on a Hotchkiss drive :rolleyes: I doubt I'd do anything right away, but I may try and incorporate if I blow up my stock axle and go shopping for an 8.8".
     
  5. edsel
    Joined: Sep 3, 2004
    Posts: 261

    edsel
    Member

    My friend Larry whom I bought my Ranger from in Idaho said what he like about the Edsel back in the 60's when he ran the car HARD was how good it handled the curvy mountain roads of central Idaho at very high rates of speed (usually after allot of whisky) , he also liked that he could burn the tires from one end of town to the other at will (stock).
    Yes you can use Granada, Ltd11, Torino or Linc Versi , Front spindles and disc, but the only one that are a drop from stock are the small Linc spindles (I found this out after I installed Torino ones) the Linc gives you a 2" drop but they are getting hard to find , I used 1975 Torino and everything fit fine, I did use my reamer tool and reamed out the spindle where the outer tie rod mounts, I could have gotten by without doing that but I wanted a few more threads on threads on the cotter pin.
    New control arm bushing are a big help and cut 1 coil, I used a 1970 Ford F250 frnt disc/rear drum master cyl. and it mounts nice.
    Post some pictures.

    edsel
     
  6. brownsmetal
    Joined: Sep 16, 2007
    Posts: 422

    brownsmetal
    Member

    53 to 55 vettes have limiting straps on the rear axle to cure body roll.
     
  7. mixedupamx
    Joined: Dec 2, 2006
    Posts: 513

    mixedupamx
    Member

    try sliding a couple floor jacks under the frame on one side of the car and jack it up slightly to simulate body roll. observe the front tire to see if it goes into negative camber(bottom out top in) as the suspention compresses. this is desireble as it keeps the most tread on the pavement in a turn. what you dont want is the top of the tire to tip out in a turn and allow the tire to roll under. if you dont get negative camber from the above test you might be able to drop the inner mounting point of the upper control arm ( this was a trick that Carrol Shelby used on the racing mustang GT 350's) then re aline and possibly dial in a little negative camber from the start.
     
  8. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,393

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    You might also want to do some reading on 50's Fords and Mercs used on the Mexican road races. More than likely it was NASCAR stuff, but perhaps better. Gary

    Forgot to add, the cheapest way to increase performance is to buy good tires.
     

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