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’49-’51 Ford Front Stub

Our frame stub for the Shoebox Fords has become a new classic! Hundreds have been used by top builders such as Boyd, Juliano, Posies, Alan Johnson, SoCal, Brizio, etc to update these cars. Small block Ford and Chevy engines work well with minor mods to the transmission cover and the proper oil pans as detailed in our Builder’s guides. Flatheads require more oil pan space than is available, so are not usable with a frame stub, although our line of parts to update the original IFS (see page 19&20) work well.

You can build half your chassis in a day! Most rodders will take around a day’s work to install it, yielding a modern driving suspension with easy serviceability, power steering, disc brakes, and a 2”-3” drop with stock spindles. No charge optional 2” drop spindles will get you that much lower. Pages 5 and 9 list all the different spring type options (coilovers, Airride) and upgraded brakes that can be used, since this is a MII based IFS system. Engine mount kits are available to help complete your installation, and need to be fitted in your chassis after the stub is installed and the new engine positioned properly.

The rear sway bar is specially designed to mount to the axle housing and the original upper shock mounts. By going under the axle, maximum space for over axle exhaust is obtained. This really takes the body roll out of the chassis! Woodies have a different shock arrangement that won’t allow this kit to fit, bit Chassis Engineering has a #SB3540-RA rear bar (originally for 40 Fords with Versailles rear disc 9“ axles) that we sell and adapts well to those cars. Our Mustang II based IFS for the ’49-’54 Chevy has been well proven on our own ’49 fastback. That award winning car traveled over 80,000 miles with absolutely no troubles on the suspension! And that was with a 500 inch Caddy up front! Chevy engines fit well, but be sure to add an engine oil cooler to help cool big blocks of any kind. Those wider engines tend to block the exit of hot air from the engine compartment. It is important to weld up the original IFS bolt in holes on the frame flanges to preserve the frame strength, and to use our tubular style engine mounts, shown on page 10, to control frame twist. These frames are made of pretty thin material from the factory, but held up to that big Caddy just fine with the mods just mentioned.

We offer this kit with all the MII IFS options listed on page 5 and 9. We also have it in a Standard version for a 2-3” drop, an Ultra-Low for a 3-5” drop, and 2” dropped spindles can be added to either version for an additional drop. Our Fastback has the Ultra-low kit with dropped spindles for the maximum drop of 7”, without Airride! The ’54 Tudor shown has the standard kit, for comparison.

We developed the ’49-’54 Chevy Rear Axle Mount kit on our own ’51 Delivery. It has the proper lowering blocks, spring saddles and hardware to accept the original 1 ¾” wide springs. New shocks and a sway bar complete the installation and control the movement of the chassis. There are some body styles that will require a small denting of the spare tire well to clear the sway bar, but it’s not a major deal. This kit also resolved the problem of the stock rear spring locator pins being off center, by our locator holes being moved to match. This is an easy and cost effective way to handle the rear axle swap! Look for axles in the 58” hub to hub range for decent rear tire clearance. The inner side of the outer wheelwells are very fat, limiting the tire size. That sounds confusing, but will make sense when you feel up into the outer wheelhouse with your hand. You can run much larger rear tires if you modify those fenders…just do it before you paint the car!

’49-54 Rear Axle Mount Kit