Hello all,

I finally decided to register today. A little bit about myself I'm from Arizona born and raised. I inherited a 1948 ford f1 from my grandfather a while back and would like to get it going into a nice daily driver then turn around and give it back to him with some modern luxuries to enjoy. The only mods that have been done to the truck are a 302 engine, c4 tranny, ford 9" rear end as well as being converted to 12v negative ground. I've been scouring the threads on the jag xj6 swap and believe that's the route I'm going towards with the truck. Does anyone from AZ on the board know a local shop that is familiar with the xj6 swap? I have talked to industrial chassis who could do the swap, however they're booked and not currently accepting work. I would attempt the install myself, but I have zero fabrication skills to weld and fabricate the shock mounts or the front donut mounts. Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Welcome to the site. Lots of great people and info here.

 

A suspension change is not really needed for these old truck to be a nice daily driver. Keep the big original steering wheel, make certain all suspension, steering and brake components are good and let grandpa drive it.
The 302 would accept AC nicely, which he may enjoy. Don't get carried away or he may say something like "You ruined the truck, son." Sometimes we old guys don't cater to too many of these new fangled upgrades.
Just one old guy's opinion.

And, welcome to the forum.

 

You could also upgrade the stock springs to Posies springs. That would improve the ride and lower the truck some.

 

So, where in Az are you? There are a lot of us you know.

 

Thank you, I could definitely see how great this site was, when reading through threads as an unregistered member.

 

I would love to keep it the stock straight axle, but when my grandfather owned the truck, one of his unfinished goals was to add an ifs to it. Now at 76 his arthritis is pretty bad. I know the toyota box is an option for power steering, but I figured after rebuilding the stock suspension, adding disk brakes, etc. the cost would be more effective to go the jag ifs route. Thanks for the reply

 

I have looked into posies. Just weighing my options on what would be more cost effective. Thanks

 

Located in Laveen. Yes, but I don't get out much, haha

 

Hey Lou,
Welcome! It's good to think through different options up front as
you figure out your build plan.

We've got a Mustang II style front suspension installed in our '50.
Hmmmm.... It's not the "best thing since sliced bread" as they say.
Our experience:
o Our kit cost was around $2500 uninstalled - which includes a new master cylinder & brake lines. (We used No Limit Engineering - Wide Ride Kit with coilovers).

o If you are looking to have someone else do it - figure another $1500 at a minimum.

o To install the IFS you generally remove the front fenders & in our case the engine/trans. It's just easier to work on a clean frame. With the engine pulled you might as well re-do all the wiring while you are at - as you had to disconnect everything to pull the engine etc... Creep, Creep, .... The steering column sure looks old, creep.... creep.....

o Installing an IFS isn't the simplest thing to do as it involves
cutting into your existing frame & extensive life dependent welding...
Plan on a couple of months of down time - for us it was more like 4 to 6 months.

If I had it to do over again - I'd have stayed with the stock front end
& upgraded all the king pins, bushings, etc. A couple of weekends & no welding. I probably would have added Toyota Power steering & front disc brakes.

Good luck over there in Arizona - Post some pics when you can. Don't be in a hurry to tackle that front suspension with a new IFS - just saying. It would help if we knew what shape your truck was in at the moment.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Thanks Ben. It's something that has been greatly debated about for quite sometime now. The truck was running but has been parked for sometime. I just have to change the transmission pan gasket out and order a new radiator. This is the only pic I have with me currently at work. I'll take some more tonight of the engine bay, suspension, and interior.

<a href="http://s1215.photobucket.com/user/Holguin2323/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc513/Holguin2323/Mobile%20Uploads/image.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo image.jpg"/></a>

 

"It costs nearly the same...", is a completely false comparison/justification for changing to an IFS, especially if you need to pay someone else to do the install. It is a bit closer if you can get the Jag really cheap, but then the Jag is likely to need a complete rebuild as well. rebuilding the beam doesn't need any fabrication skills and the work can be done in the driveway by anyone with reasonable mechanical skills and a good assortment of hand tools.

 

I hear you AXracer. I was justifying the cost for a jag ifs based upon rebuilding the straight axle, adding power steering, and disk brakes. As stated earlier in the thread I would like to give the truck back to my grandpa who has really bad arthritis and wanted those specific mods done when he owned the truck and was doing the restore.

 

Hey Lou,
That's a nice looking truck! Why not get it running & see how it drives
before deciding on major surgery. We used an American Racing Brand
radiator from Summit for our truck - under $400 if I remember correctly.

Good luck over there! Look forward to seeing more pics.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

I soft mounted the jag ifs under my 49. As you stated the only welding you will need to do is for the shock mounts and for the front damper arms. Shock towers are just some 11/2 or 2 inch square tubing with a flat iron shock pad and the damper mounts are 4" pieces of 3" square tubing cut 3" up, rounded off on the corners and drilled for the arms to mount. Everydayxj.com deals in used jag parts and are very helpfull. But like the boys said, you will probably need to rebuild the front end. I did mine for under 300 bucks for everything. I say go for it. Hire a welder and show him what you need done.