1954 Chevrolet - Gettin' the Drop on '49-54 Chevys

Fatman Fabrications steps up so you can get down

By Ron Ceridono

Those of us who have been involved in this hobby for an extended length of time have certainly seen a host of changes. At one time it was pretty much an anything-goes activity with just a few simple rules. First and foremost, the car in question had to be cool, so obviously that left the gate wide open and lots of examples were allowed in to join the party. (How many of our loyal, longtime, readers can remember a Pinto, Vega, Volkswagen, Tri-Five Chevy, or an F-100 gracing the cover of this very magazine title?) The other unwritten rule of street rodding was that the car had to be driven; after all, these were street rods, not show cars. So even if they were perfect when they rolled onto the asphalt for the first time, they wouldn't stay that way for long; but that was OK-the idea was to have fun with your car.

As the street rod hobby grew, and as an industry came into being to support it, structure became part of the package. And part of that structure was a magazine title for every facet of the automotive hobby. "Target Audience" became the catch phrase, and as a result, most publications, including STREET RODDER, narrowed their focus. But as Brian Brennan points out in his editorial this month, things change. However, from our vantage point, addressing '49-and-later cars is not as much about making a change as it is about coming full circle. After all, the essence of hot rodding has always been fixing up an old car to make it look and run better than it did before you got your hands on it. However, if vehicle age has anything to do with it, consider this: When the first Street Rod Nationals was held, a '32 Ford was 38 years old; today, a '49 Chevy is 57 years old. Of course, when it comes to fixing up a '48-and-newer car, original parts for them are easier to find than the prewar variety, and the street rod industry is coming up with more cool stuff all the time. Another factor is the complication involved. Building a car from the ground up can be a challenge, even for someone with experience. But '49-and-later cars are, for the most part, reasonably good vehicles in original form and can be driven and enjoyed while improvements are being made.

On the subject of driving and enjoying a '49-and-later car, there are plenty of opportunities to do so thanks to the two major street rod organizations. Goodguys has had a variety of events open to later-model vehicles for some time, and the NSRA has recently broadened the years of participation at several of its events. Of all the post-'48 cars that are being recognized for their rodding potential, '49-54 Chevys are among the most popular. The combination of unique styling, affordability, and availability of not only the cars themselves, but also the parts to build them make them naturals for the street rod treatment.

Like most postwar cars with independent front suspension, '49-54 Chevrolet front ends didn't use spindles and ball joints like those found on contemporary IFS systems. Instead, these cars use spindles similar to those on straight axles that are attached with kingpins to uprights connecting the upper and lower control arms.

As you might expect, it didn't take hot rodders long to figure out that some cars using this type of suspension system could be lowered by swapping the spindle uprights side for side. Unfortunately, this endeavor usually required the uprights to be heated and bent, but the worst part was that the steering geometry was altered, and not for the better. Granted, the car may have looked cool lowered, but it was usually miserable to drive. Someone who has had a finger on the pulse of street rodding for a long, long time is Brent VanDervort of Fatman Fabrications. He saw the need for a product more than 15 years ago and developed fabricated dropped uprights for a variety of cars that provided a safe method to lower them while maintaining proper suspension geometry. While that was a huge jump in making these cars easier to build properly, Fatman has really taken a plunge due to the huge demand and invested in the tooling to manufacture forged steel dropped uprights for '49-54 Chevys. They allow the use of either stock drum or aftermarket disc brakes and retain the stock steering system, while providing a 2 1/2-inch drop on the '49-52 cars and a 2-inch drop on '53-54 cars (Chevrolet built the '53-54 stock uprights 1/2-inch lower than the earlier style).

According to Brent, the Fatman facility has always maintained an installation shop for R&D work. By learning firsthand about the variations in factory construction and doing fabrication work, he feels the staff is better equipped to prepare easy-to-follow instructions and provide phone tech support to get customers through any tough spots; they can honestly say "been there, done that," and, Brent said, "The crew at Fatman's feel they are in the information business as well as selling parts."

One of the latest projects to be undertaken at Fatman's shop was the installation of a pair of their new forged dropped uprights in a '54 Chevy. And while it looks like a huge task, Pete D'Orta did the job from start to finish in roughly five hours, and that included adjusting the caster, camber, and toe close enough to get the car to an alignment shop; and he even had time to give us a complete description of the process involved. Although many General Motors products of the era had "knee action" upper control arms that incorporate shock absorbers, the Chevy shown here has conventional tube shocks, so other than the uprights, the suspension remains stock. And while there are a variety of kits to improve the brakes, the original drum binders were deemed adequate to keep up with the highway speeds expected since the car will retain the stock six for now. When using dropped uprights to lower these cars, it is important to realize how that impacts steering geometry. By raising the spindles on the uprights, the outer tie-rod ends will now be higher in relation to the rest of the steering linkage. This is true even if a rack-and-pinion conversion is used. If that change in steering geometry is not addressed, the result will be noticeable bumpsteer-that disconcerting tendency for the car to dart from side to side when bumps in the road are encountered. The old-school way of correcting this problem was to heat and bend the stock steering arms, but that effectively shortened them, which caused the steering to be quicker and heavier feeling. Fatman solves the problem by including new forged dropped steering arms along with the uprights. They bolt onto the spindles in the stock position and locate the tie-rod end properly to eliminate bumpsteer.