For my project truck I was thinking of going with an independent rear suspension (Kugel) - does anyone have any thoughts on this?

This price is not an issue - I realize it will add about $10K to the total and I'm fine with that.

 

I would immagine that there are other car rear ends which could be adapted... my brother had a 99 mustang cobra which has ifs, explorers have it, etc....

sorry, no knowledge of the kugel... irs is a cool idea though, especially if your going to race.

 

I have jag ifs in my 51 f1 right now & i have a jag irs in my garage that i may put
in my truck some day

 

I definitely won't be racing. I wouldn't mind showing the truck when I'm done and will probably do that at first, but afterwards it will be a semi-daily driver and trips from LA to phoenix to see some friends and family

 

Team 321 sells a kit to mount a tbird/cougar/mk8 irs under a 48-56 ford truck. You can find and rebuild one pretty cheap. You will need to change the bolt pattern to match small ford on a must II (assuming you go that route).

Tbird and cougar are coil springs. Mk8 has factory airbags. Most replace the Lincoln bags with aftermarket though.

I didn't do it but looked long an hard at it, before going the explorer 8.8 route.

Also be careful choosing tbird IRS. They have 7.5 and 8.8, and different ratios. Do your homework. Plenty of info on the web.

 

Sorry, I guess I didn't read the original ? well enough. Kugel is pricey, but if you can swing it, i can't imagine you'd be sorry about the quality. I think you might find other places to spend the $9k you save if you go another direction for IRS.

 

I found a few places that are selling the chromed version of the Kugel for around $8000 - still pricey, but it's beautiful and I like the idea of something different - everyone seems to like keeping the springs. But yeah, I"m in the process now of trying to gather all the info!!

 

Hey Jerry,
Might be good to see what you are working with over there in Anteater territory. Our '50 was in need of a lot of TLC - we ended up spending a lot of time & effort on the IFS, Cab, Doors, Bed, & engine/trans. We didn't spend much on the rear end - went with an Explorer 8.8 for the rear - $125 at a Salvage yard. It works just fine for cruising & oddjobs.

I might go with a Currie rear diff. if I just wanted to spend some money.

Good luck over there in Irvine.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

About the only body part on the truck that will be "real"/"original" will be the cab. The rest will be fiberglass replicas - lighter and cheaper;-)

I have a small site that I've been using to track what I plan on using - mailordertruck.com.

The current plan is to mostly assemble a truck from scratch - the only thing that will be from a 1956 Ford F-100 will be the cab (doors too will be replicas) and that's only because with the very limited searching I did I couldn't find a replica. I'm hoping that the real cab will be "enough" to use the title from the truck that the cab came off of.

 

A buddy's 40 Ford...photo taken at the 2011 GNRS

 

I bought a 95 "T" bird IRS for $125, complete to the last bolt and Installed it into my 55 F100.

The team 321 IRS kit is one way to plug it in and probably the easiest way but I have this thing about hacking into my frame so I did it MY way. See my build thread for more info.

I think that a full IFS and IFS under my truck will be soo nice but then again, it still sits on jack stands.

 

Thats' what I'm talking about. The Kugel looks like that too - what vehicle is that on?

 

This 56 F100 was on display at the F100 Western Nationals about 4 years ago...there is not one piece on it that is FOMOCO, all aftermarket and mostly FG. Not something that I would do but it was good advertising for the vendors.

 

A nice fiberglass '56 cab is about $6k. BeBops makes one. Here: http://www.hotrodssuperstore.com/19forf1cab.html

I assume that you've looked into a Jaguar suspension. They do ride nicely.

 

I started looking at the jaguar suspensions earlier.

CharlieLed:

I'm a bit disappointed as I didn't think there were any others (though secretly I would have been shocked if I truly were the first;-)

It does look awesome and it's something I want to emulate.

Do you know how he had it registered - as a kit or something else?