Recently I have been offered a 51 F1 roller, for pretty cheap. I'm told its got an AMC front end on it, and a 'narrowed' Ford 9inch in the back.
I have no knowledge about AMC stuff at all, and was wondering what one does to 'narrow' a 9inch.
Could anybody ( who has this set up) give me some ideas what this combination would be like and if AMC parts are available.
Thanks in advance.
Geoff.

 

To narrow a 9" you cut down the axle tubes and either shorten or replace the axles. This is done to narrow the rear track width.

As far as the AMC front end, it depends on the donor car.

 

The AMC front end is probably one from a Pacer. I have heard that some used them about 15 or 20 years ago before all the aftermarket, crown vic, & jaguar stuff was popular. It may be fine and you can probably still get parts.

 

What are you planning on doing with it? First think to find out is what is the serial # stamped on the frame, then check with the DMV or whoever is in charge of issuing renewing titles and registrations in Canada and find out if you can even register it, otherwise it's just a parts vehicle which should go cheap. You'll need to know what year and model AMC was the donor, then look online, RockAuto Parts Catalog is a good place to look, to see what parts are still available. Many AMC parts were hard to come by even back in the day. Realize that is almost 50 year old technology.
There are a lot of reasons and ways to narrow a 9", as well as some people that should never have attempted it. Need to measure it wheel mounting flange to mounting flange to see how much it's been narrowed and pull the axles and look at the ends of the housings to see how it was narrowed and check the ring and pinion ratio to see if it something you might use, but unless you really want a narrowed rear, you'd probably be better replacing it with a one from a 57-62 Truck or with a late model 8.8 with a ratio suited to your needs.

 

Depends on what 'Cheap' means.