To be honest, I dont know for sure yet. Just glancing it over, I thought it was because the box has a twist. There is no bed wood at all and a couple of the bed to frame bolts were missing. The P.O. had the grill and a few other parts off. I think he was going to pull the box. I'll know more next week when I pull the box off!

 

It's probably just the lack of support then the bed is pretty flimsy without the floor. The floor is the real load carrying structure, the bed sides were just to hang the fenders on and keep stuff from falling off onto the road.

 

Yeah, thats what I thought too. I wasnt worried about the box at all. I thought "Hey... I'll throw in a wood kit and buy a new tail gate!" (I had NO idea what they get for bed wood and tail gates at the time!) Now I'm thinking.... "That gate aint that bad! I can fix it!" My brother-in-law has a portable sawmill and some land with alot of ash and maple trees. You know, ash is a beautiful wood!! Hahahahaha. God I'm cheap!

 

Say AXracer, when you look at the yellow photshopped P.U. in my gallery, how much lower do you think that truck is than mine? Thats more that 3 inches drop in front, aint it?
I think Id be happy getting the nose down 3... maybe 4 inches and the rear down 2 to 2.5 inches.

 

Take a look at my truck in my gallery. Is that low enough? I can tell you how to get it that low.

 

Yeah, your panel looks like its really close to what I want to shoot for stance/ride height.
Thanks Chuck!

 

My truck has reversed eye spring set and 2" dropped axle in the front, reversed eye spring set with flipped rear spring hanger in the back. the wheels are 15", the rear axle is a Ford 9". The panel doesn't need it but with the pickup you may want to us the center forward springs to move the front axle more centered in the front wheel well.
If you go all the way, you'll need longer headed spring center bolts so you can add 2 caster shims each side.
You can get another inch in the front with a 3" drop axle, even tho there are deeper drop axles out there I wouldn't recommend them unless you know how to modify the steering arm for tie rod clearance and to avoid bump steer.
Order a copy of Mid Fifty's print catalog www.midfifty.com it has a wealth of information in it including a complete lowering chart as well as all the parts you might need for your truck. MF is a unique business in this market as it is owned and operated by an all female staff who each know more about 53-56 Ford trucks than most any guy I've met and really love them.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have, but do use the search function here as well as check out all the articles under the articles and specs tab in the grey bar at the top of the page for detailed info and discussions.

 

I think you're 3 inch dropped axle is great in front. I like to see variety on these trucks. I would have done that to my 53 to get it down too, especially because it's the cheapest way to go. It will ride like a truck, but it's not that bad. You should make your life easy and safer by putting a good disc brake system on the dropped axle with master cylinder and booster. I used stock brakes and almost killed the truck once or twice just cruising around. Out back, I think you will run into frame clearance problems if you completely move the springs to the bottom of the axle. You may be able to get mono-leaf springs and longer brackets to mount the leaf spring in to get it a little lower. Start measuring....

 

Thanks for all the ideas and input guys! Oh, I'll definately upgrade to front disks. I havent decided yet on the booster/master set-up. REALLY leaning toward hanging pedals, but who knows.
Time to nose round the site and try to learn a little more.

Oh yeah, I ordered the Mid-fifty catalog too. Thanks Chuck!

 

Welcome to the board!!

I am basically running the stock suspension on my 49. I didn't build my truck with the intention of driving it every day or for serious cornering and handling, if I want something like that I'll drive my new truck. I wanted a fun occasional driver, and I'm having a blast cruising it around.
I removed several leaves from the front spring packs. I would like it a bit lower but for now its ok. It actually drives really well(for a 50+ year old truck). Right now I'm running bias ply tires wich tend to follow any rut in the road, once I buy some radials I should be good to go.
I did upgrade to power steering and disc brakes.

Glad to have you on the site
Bobby

 

So Bobby, How'd you lower the rear, or didnt you? I'm still waiting on all of my catalogs...... so I still have no idea what I'll do for sure. Learning alot nosing around the site though!