Suspension "mods"

[Kahuna]

As Brian mentioned, radials are a good addition, but do nothing as far as helping body roll

 

[40cpe]

Things begun to snow ball once I decided to run juice brakes and a T-5!

Yeah, I know. It is easy to make "just one little change" and then another is necessary to cover for the first one. The reason I asked so many questions about your car is I have one street rod with more modern suspension but want to keep this old '38 as near original as possible.

 

[Ross6860]

I used your their parralel leaf spring kit,shocks and sway bar along with a Buick Grand National rear end. It's backing plate to backing plate was Identical to the original ford banjo I took out. Things begun to snow ball once I decided to run juice brakes and a T-5!

I think I see my future...

I said I wouldn't change anything until I had the car a year and really figured out where I want to go with it.

 

[phat rat]

An anti roll bar works very well on these cars. You might have to fabricate it yourself though. You don't want to do any cutting, welding or heat bending on a factory one. They are a torsion bar and depend on the heat treat in the bar to work.

I guess I forgot to tell my front sway bar that it wasn't supposed to work after being cut and welded. It's been that way for over 88,000 miles and still working fine. My avatar is not a burnout it's a sideways drift so you can see the sway bar works fine

 

[Ross6860]

I guess I forgot to tell my front sway bar that it wasn't supposed to work after being cut and welded. It's been that way for over 88,000 miles and still working fine. My avatar is not a burnout it's a sideways drift so you can see the sway bar works fine

The welder knew what he/she was doing...

 

[JM 35 Sedan]

I think I see my future...

I said I wouldn't change anything until I had the car a year and really figured out where I want to go with it.

I think you would be wise to drive your car as much as possible before making any changes. I drive my basically stock '35 fordor sedan quite a bit and don't really see the need to improve the suspension/ride/handling beyond what I have already done:

1. Front and rear shocks rebuilt by Bill Wzorek
2. Radial tires
3. Removed, disassembled, cleaned and lubed rear spring. Will do front next.
4. Checked/replaced spring shackle bushings if/where necessary
5. Installed brake floaters on stock mechanical brakes
6. replaced 4.11 rear gears with 3.78

So far this year I have driven this car over 8k miles on every type of road condition imaginable and I think overall it has handled very well. I don't see the need to add some of the suspension features/modifications that have been mentioned here.

 

[Pete]

I guess I forgot to tell my front sway bar that it wasn't supposed to work after being cut and welded. It's been that way for over 88,000 miles and still working fine. My avatar is not a burnout it's a sideways drift so you can see the sway bar works fine

It may be working to your satisfaction, but it isn't working as it was designed.

 

[Ol' Ron]

Welding a sway bar is OK, it only works in compression and tension. Welding a stabilizer bar is a no,no as it acts like a torsion bar.

 

[phat rat]

The welder knew what he/she was doing...

No magic involved just mig welded it and let it cool

Pete, sometimes products made for the masses work better modified for special purposes. I don't understand how you can say this isn't working

 

[carbuilder]

I like the parralel leaf idea, and the t5. the sway and panhard bars up front with tube shocks and a steering box upgrade. don't forget the radial tires

 

[36tbird]

MII front ends are neat, but I do not think you see that much difference from a fixed up wishbone. You can PM me about an already narrowed '40 sway bar if interested.

 

[Dave/Green Bay]

I didn't have to modify the 40 sway bar when I installed on my 35 Ford. Just add the 40 spring perches that will take the sway bar swivels that sway bar mounts to. Dave/Green Bay

 

[PeterC]

Yes- I have an original 40 front sway bar installed on my 35 Coupe - really nice improvement.

I don't know if this is possible on a 36, but on my 39 coupe, I installed a 40 Deluxe sway bar in Front. It required removal of 2 rivits and 2 new holes to be drilled. This made the Best improvement re sway/roll

 

[fordor41]

On my '41 I have C.E. rear springs(1 leaf removed because it sat way too high), tried a rear sway bar(really rough ride thru 1 wheel bumps) now removed, 7 out of 11 leaves in the front, stock front sway bar(feels "goofy" without one), stock front shocks set at medium setting, tried a front panhard bar (Made the front wander). radials, keep steering box adjusted. Just about everything I tried other than this combo made the ride worse including front tube shocks.