Rebuld Vs Shock Conversion

R

rayfour

Junior Member
I have a '46 Mercury and am trying to decide if I should purchase and install refurbished original style knee action shocks, or convert to tubular.



If going tubular are bolt on units available? So far I haven't located anything.


Thanks,


Ray Fournier
 
Ray- It has been 10 years ago but I wondered about the same thing. I have a '41 Coupe. After asking the question to quite a few Ford guys the opinion I got was that the tubes were no better riding than the originals. I removed them during the winter and sent them to Houdaille for a rebuild. The car still rides just fine (for a '41).
 
48 had tubular, and there was a ford retrofit kit ---what are you lubricating your spring with?, springs and shocks have to work together, the fittings on the springs are for spring lube which is a thin oil and talc in suspension, grease will make the spring stiff, and block the passages to the tips of the leaves
 
Although my shocks seem find but If I could find rear kits then I could put the coil helpers
only to raise rear about 2-3 inches.. I don't like tail draggers. Front 4 fingers (tire to fender) rear no fingers. rear spring looks good nothing worn may need rearched??
A Kit maybe air shocks...that would work:: Low rear will effect caster:: sam
 
Apple Hydraulic seems to have a special if four shocks are purchased, four for $588. Maybe that is the way to go.
 
big job said:
Low rear will effect caster:: sam
Click to expand...


You are correct! But, by sitting lower, the caster is MORE POSITIVE (not a bad thing) by "ABOUT" 0.8291 degrees. By raising the rear of frame 3", caster will go LESS positive (back to stock again) by roughly 0.8291 degrees. So yeah, it'll affect the caster by slightly less than 7/8 of ONE degree.
DD


Wheelbase: 114"
Axle C/L to wishbone ball C/L: 42.5" (approx.)
Above ratio: 37.28%
Raise rear at axle C/L: 3"
 
Be careful of "Apple Hydraulics". Do a couple of internet searches before you decide to send them anything.
 
Joe Immler said:
Tubman And the reason is.............?
Click to expand...


Here's ONE example from a post last year. DD
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08-07-2019, 09:26 PM #15 john greco
Senior Member

Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: tx
Posts: 176


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Re: Who rebuilding shocks now
I sent back the same shock to apple 7 times , before it was fixed , 7 times , and it was $ 920. For the 4 , plus return shipping 4 times , never again
 
Joe Immler said:
Tubman And the reason is.............?
Click to expand...

The reason is they do crap work. They destroyed a rare set of concourse correct (early 39) shocks of mine. Destroyed, as in "junk".
When there's a guy like Andy out there doing GOOD, HONEST work at a fair price - why even consider anyone else?
 
I second Mike's recommendation as Andy is the go-to source for quality shock absorber restoration.
 
Just received my rebuilt (remanufactured and perfect) shocks for my 37 pickup from Andy Falandes. Perfect! I couldn't be happier with this Christmas present.
Thanks Andy.

Bill Wyckoff
 
On my '41 fordor I Installed chassis Eng. rear leaf springs which lowered the raer a couple inches. lowered front by removing every other leaf and tried all sorts of tube shocks. eventually settled on my original Houdailles. that was the best ride quality I could get. What i liked about the Houdailles was I could ad.j the shock stiffness any time I wanted.
 
Kudos to Andy Falandes,AKA andys.shoxs.com Just received a rebuilt rear pair for for a '35 Cabriolet for a friend here in France. We bought them outright since sending the cores off the car were cost prohibitive. They now are installed and owner of the '35 is very pleased.
 
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I have used Andy Falandes for shock rebuilds, quick turn around and quality work. While I have never used Apple, I have heard too many bad things. I'm staying away from Apple.
 
I've managed to aquire a couple sets of the adaptors that would allow me to put tubular type shocks on my '35's. I didn't buy them intentionally....they just happened to come along with some collection's of part's I purchased or was given.
However, I do prefer using the original Houdaille shocks on my cars, and I don't know of anyone better than Andy Falandes to rebuild these original type shocks. I know he was personally trained very well by the late Bill Wzorek(RIP), and I have never heard of any problems with Andy's work.
 
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