We've been following along with Al Scudellari's '46 Chevy as it has been progressing within the past couple months over in the Primedia Tech Center. Back in March, we ran a story that covered the installation of a Chassis Engineering bolt-in Mustang II IFS kit. The kit installed in a few hours and the improvements over stock were definitely worth the time and money. The car handled, stopped, and steered like never before and the packaging was tidy so as not to clutter the frontend. Since then, motor mounts were fab'd for the new Chevy mill, as well as a trans mount for the TH350 transmission.
The existing rear suspension is definitely showing some signs of wear; the shocks are out, the springs are tired, the brakes need to be rebuilt, and it looks like the rear has been leaking a bit-all signs of a badly needed overhaul.
As our way rearward was being made, the subject came up in regards to the rear suspension. At some point in its life, the Chevy was the recipient of a 10-bolt Chevy truck rearend. While it definitely served its purpose, the rearend was tired, leaking, and the six-lug pattern did not lend itself to many options when it came to choosing wheels. The decision was made to scrap the used 10-bolt and install a new 9-inch Ford rearend from Currie Enterprises. While the rearend was out of the car, it was decided to install a Chassis Engineering complete rearend mounting kit, which consists of a new set of parallel leaf springs, shocks, and a sway bar to update the rear suspension to match the front. Chassis Engineering is a leader in bolt-in chassis parts in the hot rod aftermarket, and the ease of installation of their Mustang II kit made using their rear kit all the more sensible.
The rearend mounting kit is a complete bolt-in unit with the only welding required on the rearend in the form of the two spring-mounting pads and the sway bar pads. The kit comes with new spring mounts that replace the stock units and bolt in using six of the original holes. A drill is needed to ream the holes to 5/16-inch and to drill the two additional holes for the rear mount, and also for the shock and sway bar crossmember mounting holes. Other than that, it's just a matter of getting the car off the ground, sliding under it, and slapping on all the new parts-a perfect job for an afternoon in the garage.
The first step is to support the rearend with a rearend jack before removing any of the suspension parts. The leaf springs and shocks can be removed once the rearend is supported. | 
With the suspension components and rearend removed, it's time to get rid of the stock spring mounts. Care is taken to not destroy the stock mounting holes, as they will be reused for the new mounts. | 
The complete rearend mounting kit from Chassis Engineering includes new leaf springs, mounts, shackles, U-bolts, and hardware, as well as shocks and shock mounts. An optional sway bar kit is also going to be installed. |
The front spring mount lines up with the four stock holes from the old mount, the only difference being that the old holes need to be reamed to 5/16-inch. The offset faces the rear and outside. | 
The two front holes on the rear mount line up with the existing holes in the chassis. Like the front, they too need to be reamed to 5/16-inch. | 
With the new mounts bolted in place, it's time to install the new springs. The front of the spring is bolted directly to the mount using the stock bushing, while the rear uses the furnished shackle. |
A distance of 14 3/4 inches is measured forward from the front boltholes on the rear spring mount, marked, and drilled to 5/16-inch. | 
The crossmember needs to be modified before it's installed due to interference with the spare-tire well. Chassis Engineering recommends modifying the wheelwell itself, but since that may restrict the use of a spare tire, it was decided to modify the crossmember instead. | 
Before the crossmember is bolted into place, the shock studs are installed on the crossmember, pointing toward the front of the car. |
By bolting the crossmember into place using the four forward mounting holes, it can be used as a drill guide to locate the four rear mounting locations. | 
The next step is to install the spring and sway bar pads on the bare Currie 9-inch Ford rearend. The rearend is placed on top of the springs, supported by a rearend jack to aid in mocking up all the pieces. | 
For this application, Chassis Engineering calls for a 46 1/2-inch center-to-center width of the spring pads. The Currie rear is 56 1/2 inches flange to flange, so the centerline of each spring pad needs to be 5 inches from the flange. |
The pinion angle is set at 4 degrees before each spring pad is tacked to the rearend housing. When the installation is complete, the rearend housing will be sent back to Currie so they can finish-weld the spring and sway bar pads so as to minimize distortion. |  | 
The shocks mount off the spring retainer plate on the bottom and the shock stud on the crossmember. From this angle, you can see where the crossmember is going to interfere with the rearend housing. |
The first step in mounting the sway bar is to attach it to the crossmember. | 
Once in place, the end link assembly can be installed. Note the arrangement of the bushings and washers between the end link. | 
The end link attaches to a sway bar pad that needs to be welded to the rearend housing parallel to the spring pads. Like the spring pads, these also have a set width; this time 37 1/2 inches center to center is the magic number. |
Rear disc brakes are another option chosen for the rear of the '46 Chevy, a definite improvement over the small drums that existed before the upgrade. | 
Here's a good view of the modified crossmember kicked up over the rearend housing. This cleared the crossmember of the spare-tire well, but unfortunately the sway bar hit the well so some sort of modifications to the area will be necessary anyways. | |