One of the drawbacks many of the full-size passenger car makes from the late '40s to the early '60s suffer from is that those boys in Detroit were still trying to perfect the independent suspension design. While at first it seems like something that wouldn't necessitate an upgrade, "Can't we just bolt on some dropped spindles and disc brakes?", one soon realizes that many of the frame designs of that era just don't live up to the modern amenities we now take for granted.
Here's the wagon in its stock...
Here's the wagon in its stock guise; not a real attractive stance. Not to mention the paint and wheel combo, but first thing's first.
While it is possible for many models to accept bolt-on upgrades, oftentimes it leaves other areas of the performance genre high and dry. We ran into this problem when it came to the front suspension of our '56 Ford Courier project. While it shares, for all intents and purposes, the same chassis as its two-door sedan brethren, more importantly it suffers from what many of the makes of the '50s suffer from: frame-integrated coil spring pockets and a poorly designed control arm setup. This translates into an aftermarket dry of upgradable control arms, which means you're stuck with whatever performance the old bird can produce. Of course, that doesn't hold up these days.
The stock front suspension...
The stock front suspension design on the Fords yield a few problems for those desiring more when it comes to performance and overall handling. Also note the aforementioned coil spring pockets that are incorporated into the framerails making a simple crossmember-type IFS install extremely hard, if not impossible.
Luckily, Fatman Fabrications has come up with a solution for many of these old steeds that solves not one, but three or four birds with one stone. What they offer is a frame stub that replaces the stock suspension components as well as the old box steering and cleans up the entire front frame section nicely. But installing a frame stub is inherently more complicated than the more common crossmember-style upgrades common amongst straight axle-equipped cars and trucks. As one could image, cutting off the front of the frame yields many more problems than just trimming some sheetmetal away and replacing it. The whole front sheetmetal relies on the careful placement of the support holes on the chassis and when they're removed, the whole skin is hangin' in the breeze.
That said, we're gonna walk you through the first half of installing a Fatman stub, right up to the do-or-die point where the frame is whacked off at the firewall. Next month, we'll come back and finish up the job, but for now, take a look at the first part, arguably the most important, where the careful measurements are made and all the preparation is done to yield a new stub where everything bolts back up correctly.
Notice how long the lower...
Notice how long the lower control arms are. Replacing the control arms themselves would cause an engineering headache in that the length would result in unwanted deflection, yielding less than optimal suspension performance, another reason a frame stub is necessary.
Here's the solution Fatman...
Here's the solution Fatman Fabrications came up with: a complete IFS stub that replaces the antiquated suspension and steering of the old Ford. Notice the radiator core support boltholes? These will play an important role a little later.
First up, we need to get the...
First up, we need to get the Ford on some jackstands and get it sitting nice and level.
We used shims on the jackstands...
We used shims on the jackstands to get it perfect and note that they are behind the firewall as the frame from the firewall forward will be removed.
It's important to make sure...
It's important to make sure the chassis is level, side to side, in a number of different locations, as well as front to rear.
These next few steps will...
These next few steps will make or break the install. One foul move and you'll be cursing everything around you as nothing will line up once the stub is welded in place.
First, the bumper boltholes...
First, the bumper boltholes and radiator core support on the stock frame are marked onto the shop floor using a plumb bob dropped through the center of each hole.
The height of each mark is...
The height of each mark is also recorded from the ground to the center of the bolthole.
The axle centerline is also...
The axle centerline is also recorded using a plumb bob hung from the center of each kingpin. Due to alignment issues, these two measurements can be averaged, although you still want to get them as close as possible to the actual reading.
The green pieces of tape contain...
The green pieces of tape contain all our measurements and plumb bob locations. We chose to go this route as we thought the ink on the shop floor wouldn't last the few days it was going to take to complete the install. While it was a good idea in theory, it did prove, as the tape didn't want to stick to the floor any better than the ink would have by the third day. That's what we get for thinkin'!
These two separate pair of...
These two separate pair of markings represents the bumper bolthole centers, heights, as well as the distance diagonally to the rear end centerline as an extra reference point.
To mark the embarkation line...
To mark the embarkation line where the front frame portion will be excised from the rest of the chassis, we took another plumb bob reading from the front body mount bolthole.
Measuring things diagonally...
Measuring things diagonally adds another point of reference that helps maintain a square relationship to the existing chassis components.
Here's where things get a...
Here's where things get a bit confusing. In order to mark the chassis the prescribed 8-3/4 inches ahead of the front body mount bolthole, we found it more accurate to use the floor as our template and translate those measurements to the chassis. The curvature of the framerail ahead of the body mount is the reason for this. First, we used the two plumb bob readings marked down from the last step and drew a line through each mark; this gives us a nice square line from which to reference.
We then used the square to...
We then used the square to measure and mark the 8-3/4 inches set by Fatman's instructions. The image is pretty self explanatory at this step.
Using the frame cut line in...
Using the frame cut line in the last step, we then set a level on the floor and marked our cutting line perpendicular to the ground, making it a perfect 8-3/4 inches from the body mount.
To be on the safe side, we...
To be on the safe side, we cut the front section off slightly ahead of the line to allow it to be removed and placed out of the way.
Then with plenty of room to...
Then with plenty of room to work, we carefully cleaned up the cut right to the line.
The frame cut line was drawn...
The frame cut line was drawn across all four sides of the framerail before taking out HTP plasma cutter from the frame.
At this point it really sets...
At this point it really sets in what's been done; there's no going back now! Stay tuned next month when we attach the Fatman Fabrications frame stub and suspension components.