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This section shows the parts we have available to update the original IFS (Independent Front Suspension) on cars from the ’30s through the ’50s. Many of these cars have a reasonably good suspension that can be upgraded. This makes sense especially if the car has already had the original IFS rebuilt and the car just needs lowering and improving. The retention of an original drivetrain can also make this route more sensible than replacing the front end completely, as would be done using our frame stubs on page 6.

You will find it very helpful to find an original shop manual that illustrates the repair and alignment of these suspensions. There are often hidden adjustment points and techniques that are not readily apparent to one not experienced with them. Many of these cars use an upper control arm that also serves (ineffectively) as the lever type shock absorber. People often describe this incorrectly as “knee action”, which was used on the ’34-38 Chevy Master and Pontiac cars. It was a truly hopeless design, while simply adding a modern tube shock to this lever shock style works pretty well. Take a look at a ’60-87 Chevy PU to see how the shock was mounted. Use that shock, and make a 3/8" thick upper mount welded to the frame, with the shock in the middle of its travel at ride height. Retain the stock upper arms shock and just consider it a control arm. Our dropped uprights for the ’39-50 Mopars include this shock mount, when those cars originally mounted the shock between the upper and lower arms, where it served almost no function at all! They apparently retrained that designer and put the shock inside the coil spring like a modern car on the ’51-56 production run, where it works well.

The list of applications is extensive, and we actually offer even more. The spindles listed can accept stock drum brakes if you prefer, with the exception of the notes in the list. Mopars used a difficult to adapt backing plate brake shoe retainer bolts to attach the steering arms, so disc brakes are required on those applications. We can also provide dropped spindles for a number of ’37-55 Cad/LaSalle cars, whose drum brakes will not fit over the now dropped uprights. Rather than mislead rodders into thinking the drums will work, we don’t have them in the catalog. Discs will be required, but easy bolt on kits don’t exist due to the necessity of machining the spindle to get a bearing combination to work. We can help you with shop sketches to point experienced fabricators in the right direction, or you can send yours to Brake Tech Solutions @ 704-509-9210 for them to do it. Plan on around $1000-$1200 parts and labor.

We cannot say it too many times!!! Factory IFS systems using a kingpin have a two part spindle made up of the upright (sometimes called the knuckle) and the spindle proper, which supports the wheel bearings. The use of dropped uprights such as these will also raise the position of the outer tie rod end relative to the suspension pivots, since the steering arm is bolted to the backing plate bosses on the actual spindle. This WILL cause bumpsteer (toe in change with suspension travel). Some rodders think that they don’t need these when adding a rack and pinion steering, but we would have to say that the geometry on such a system would be suspect.

The old way was to heat and bend the steering arms down the same amount the spindle is raised, returning the outer tie rod end to its original height. You need to use a large enough torch to get it cherry red, use a 15-18" tube as a lever, and let the part air cool as slowly as possible. This is easily done on the nice long forged steering arms on ’39-56 Olds, Pontiac, Buick, Kaiser, and Mopar applications. We make a dropped steering arm that eliminates this process for the ’49-53 Ford/Mercury, ’39-54 Chevy, and ’53-62 Corvette. These cars have a much shorter steering arm that loses too much length when it is heated and bent.

The dropped spindles for the ’54 and later Ford products and the Volare/Cordoba and ’57-88 Mopar fit cars with a more modern ball joint type suspension. We either have drilled holes in the proper location for the unmodified stock steering arms, or on some applications welded on new ones in the correct location. They are also designed to accept an original factory disc brake system which must be sourced from a donor car. Since salvage yard parts are becoming more scarce, we offer an optional kit which allows use of a Wilwood caliper and pads. You can easily get the rotors and bearings from a parts store, allowing the use of all brand new parts without having to scrounge for OEM stuff. We have just added a complete set of ‘75-‘80 Granada rotors, bearings and seals, calipers with pads and brackets for $449. This kit can be used to complete any of our ’54-’73 Ford spindles.