1939 Ford Deluxe Sedan -The Down Low

One caliperbracket in the kit wouldn't let us insert the inside brake shoe; it was too tight of a fit. Since the problem was a fat casting cross section and not in the machining (the bracket's machined surfaces remained parallel with the rotor), we simply ground away the excessive casting.

Panhard bars benefit most transverse-sprung cars since they raise the roll center, and they're especially good on cross-steer cars since they control lateral axle movement. P&J presumes we're going to split the wishbone and makes its Panhard bar brackets (1015, for narrow axle) to that angle. Since we didn't split the wishbone, the Panhard bar juts off in an unnatural direction (it's supposed to parallel the tie rod) and won't align with the Panhard bar's chassis bracket.

P&J instructions tell us to simply bolt the bracket to the wishbone. I'm not entirely comfortable bolting anything through a hollow tube without first equipping it with crush sleeves, so I had a local fabricator just weld the bracket to the wishbone. If you elect to bolt the bracket to the wishbone, base your final bolt-space dimension on the bracket's actual bolt pattern. The instruction can-and in this case did-suggest dimensions that differ from the actual parts.

The Panhard bar's chassis bracket very elegantly indexes the stock snubber hole. Once bolted in place, merely drill the two additional holes in the side and bottom of the frame rail and install the remaining fasteners.

We found our Panhard bar remedy in a simple 1/2-inch spherical rod end, which happens to match the rod ID and the bracket bolt OD. For photo purposes, we left out the sleeves that take up the spaces between the ball and the bracket.

Once we finished assembling the suspension components, we popped a fresh bushing on the wishbone ball, slid the entire suspension under the car in one piece, and bolted everything in place.

We rolled our once-lofty sedan into the sunlight for its debut and squealed in delight at its new stance. According to POSIES, the rear spring should lower the tail 2 1/2 inches. So imagine our surprise when we measured a 2 1/4-inch drop even though the new rear tires are 1 1/2 inches taller than the stock 6.00-16s. Unfortunately we forgot to measure the stock front height, but keep in mind that stock '39 Fords sit nose high and this one ... well, it don't. It took considerable discipline to disassemble the suspension for paint, but we did anyway.

While anyone who knows Fords could spot the changes we made, the suspension as a whole has a certain official look, as if it came that way from Ford. We suggest that you resist painting, plating, or coating the parts until you fit them during a dry-run assembly. It varies per job, but you'll have to file or grind at least one thing.

We couldn't just make the front sit right without at least doing something with the rear suspension, so we got a POSIES Super Slide (PN R40L) spring. Like the front, it features reversed eyes, a vastly different profile, and the nylon sliders. To install it, we removed the spring clamp bolts, clamped the leaves, replaced the stock pinch bolt with a longer standard bolt, and slowly released the spring. At this point we're still using the stock shocks, but that, too, will eventually change.

To us, nothing looks better than a tall, skinny tire tucked well into a fender, and there's hardly a more appropriate looking wheel than the '40-48 Ford 16-inch rollers. We equipped ours with 5.00/5.25-16 and 7.00-15 (even though 6.50-16 might fit better) Firestones from Coker Tire.