As I said in another post, one of the torsion bars in my volare ifs broke. I went to several local junk yards looking for a pair of replacement bars and could not find any.I did however find several Chrysler cars with the earlier design front suspension. The early design , that goes back to the late 50s, is what the Gibbon crossmember kits that were sold a few years back used. I am thinking about removing the volare and replacing it with the other. I like the "looks" of the early design. The volare style is ugly.
Mt54 did what I have in mind. He used the early style without the Gibbons crossmember.The Gibbons parts are no longer available .Mt 54 has not posted on here since early in 2011. Are you still with us , Mt54? Anybody else running the early style? I would like to hear from you if you are.Thanks.

 

Well, my 54 has a '77 Cordoba IFS including a DIY cross member. After seeing your post about a broken torsion bar I went looking for some on ebay. There weren't any Volare type but there was a set for my style out of a Cordoba with a 400 cu in engine. I was not aware that there are different size bars for my IFS. BTW, I narrowed mine by 1-1/2 inches. One thing I don't like is the steering box is pretty close to the cab although I'd like to put a column shifter on it I doubt there is enough space between the end of the steering col. and steering box with that type steering column so I'll leave the shifter on the floor.

I've driven mine around the cul-de-sac and I'm happy with it. It doesn't waddle. I don't have the doors on it yet so I've not had it up to highway speeds yet so I can not make a recommendation for this set up.

 

Thanks Dan. I did not realize that narrowing would be necessary. The donor car I had in mind is a '75 full size car that had a 440 engine. The engine & transmission have already been removed. I was planning to use the stock crossmember and graft it into my frame. Did you cut & weld the steering center link? I don't much like the idea. I wonder if a volare center link could be used , if they are shorter? How much space is there between the box & cab? I'm using a column shift and DO NOT want to switch to floor shift.
I suppose the rear crossmember would be too wide to fit between the F100 rails too.

 

Thomc

I've got a question... if you had problems finding parts for a 30 year old car, why would you want to swap to something 60 years old ? If you're going to cut out the Volare and butcher up the frame rails... why not just rework the rails back to original and put a Mustang II under it ??

the crossmembers can be had pretty cheap, you don't have to go with the high dollar swaps. Then you'll have something that is reliable, easy to work with fitting up steering/linkage/etc and a dang site prettier than that Chrysler sub frame...

at least mine is...

just askin.....

John

 

I have located several donor cars with the early style while looking for the late style.However,I have not fully decided to use one. I'm trying to decide what to use.If Ifind some torsion bars I will keep the volare, for now. I do want to put a Cadillac 472 back in the truck. That's what I have in it now and I bought another one this past weekend.I have a '40 Chevy sedan that I installed a Mustang II in and it drives great.I have a '55 Studebaker pickup that I put on a '87 Dakota frame but it is not driveable yet.I have installed Nova and Camaro rear steer ('75 and newer) subframes before and would not have a problem with using one again.Thanks.

 

Hi Thom,

Just an opinion and not to deter from your original question but considering something else might be the best option long term. I am pondering an MII for my 56 project but am torn between it and what is in my 55, a 87 Ford Crown Vic front clip. Parts interchange for it is 1979-91. I said all that to say I personally would consider something that has a better parts interchange or replacement market before you change everything and end up in the same place. The MII has a real good replacement market as does the GM subframes. You might try car-part.com for some torsion bars for your Volare. Thanks and best of luck

 

I agree with the others. I like the Volare suspension and as long as you can find replacement T-bars then I'd keep it but I would NOT consider changing the suspension to the parallel type Volare T-bar. If you have the bucks go with a MII or have a look at the Jag suspension...

 

Hi Tacson. You and I talked at the Chimney Rock NC show two or three years ago. After researching my options these last few days I was going to ask you about the clip under your '55. I was wondering where the cut was made on your frame. How far forward of , say the front cab mount ? What I'm thinking is ... would the cut be behind the notch in my frame for the volare? However today I got a lead on two possibly available " volare type" donor cars. If all goes well I might be able to buy both front suspensions later this week.If so I will keep what I have , for now.
I would not consider using a Jag ifs , or irs . I believe replacement parts cost and availability would be a problem. The best case would be good used torsion bars like the ones I already have. Used would be BETTER than new bars because if the bushings are good on the used bars , as they are on the ones I removed from my truck, a lot of work in swapping the bushings from bar to bar would be eliminated.Thanks.

 

I'm not sure if narrowing it is necessary. It's kinda a long story and I've forgotten some of it. It started over 10 years ago as a project with my son. I've never done anything like this and didn't have any kind of resource. the guy I bought the truck from had the 77 Cordoba and included it in the deal. He was planning to put the Gibbons cross member under it and that was my plan too so first thing I did was strip the suspension parts off the Cordoba and scrap the rest. I live in town and already have more junkers than room to park them. The gibbons cross member was kinda expensive for my budget so I decided to fabricate my own. I'm not sure how or why I came up with the idea to make it 1-1/2" narrower but that made the rear cross member match the frame width nicely. I also cut, shortened, and welded up the drag link and sway bar. I got a pretty good full pen weld on both and don't have any worry on either one. Again, I can not recommend this idea (except that it's about the cheapest way you can go and not cut up the frame rails) because I have not had this thing at highway speeds so I've no idea if I have the geometry right. I'm just sharing what I've done and the possible complications you might have if you try it.

 

Yeah I like the 2 or 3 years ago. Really it has been almost 6 years, 2006.. I would think you could find some used bars. Now you might have to have them shipped in but they can be found I believe. I just checked car-part.com and *** Auto Salvage in Elm City has bars for $50 a piece. I am not sure how far in NC that is from you that it might be worth a shot. IF you can get the donor front ends even better. If you dont get anywhere and end up swapping to something else holler at me and I will help anyway I can.

 

Time flies, huh?I thought "that can't be right" so I went to my closet and pulled out a tee shirt I bought at that run. Sure enough, October 2006. I've only been back to the "Run to The Rock" once since then. The time I did go back the show moved , during the show , to the grassy area behind the government building at Lake Lure. The promoter got pee'd off at the folks running the motel and had all the trucks line up and left the motel.
Anyway I did some more looking today locally for the bars. I went to a used car lot owned by a gent who also has a junk yard in another location , about 5 miles from my house.I hope to go there this weekend.The junkyard is open only on Saturday and Sunday. He told me he has 600+ cars . When I named the 80s Chrysler models that would have what I need he said " Yeah, I've got 2 or 3 of each." So he should have about a dozen donors altogether.If so, I'm thinking grab 2 or 3 complete front ends and a couple of pairs of torsion bars.Thanks

 

Cool gonna send you a private message later.

 

I went to the local junkyard today where the owner/operator thought he had several cars with the torsion bars that I need. He had NONE. All the cars he had were either front wheel drive or earlier than 1976.The search continues.

 

Rats. What is your next step/plan of attack

 

I will be checking back with one local junkyard that might come through for me.He says he just sold two v8 engines out of Chrysler cars. He delivered both cars to the engine buyer (same buyer for both), and is to go get the cars back after the engines are removed. He said the plan was to take the cars to the scrapyard , but now he will bring them back to his place so I can remove the parts I need. I will probably remove the complete ifs from both.If the cars have v8s at least that proves that they are RWD cars and the suspension is much easier to remove with the engine gone.
Another option is a used parts dealer in Asheboro NC that shows to have some torsion bars available . It's about a 2 hour drive from here ,but one has to do what one has to do.
In the meantime my '95 S10 daily ride blew a head gasket , so now I'm in the process of fixing it.