I just got back from the Turkey Run in Daytona and while I was there I did a rather unscientific study of drive trains and suspensions in 48-56 Ford pickups. I looked at a total of 12 trucks at the show and this is what I found. Six of them or 50% had Chevy V8 engines, five of them or 42% had Ford engines, and one of them or 8% had Chrysler power. Of the Ford engines, two or 17% were flathead V8s, one or 8% was a big block Ford, and two or 17% were small block Fords.

Regarding front suspensions, eight of the trucks or 67% had Camaro frame grafts, three or 25% had straight axles, and one or 8% had a Chrysler torsion bar suspension.

A full 83% or 10 of the trucks used Ford rear ends. The only two other rears used were one Nova and one Chrysler.

I did this mainly for my own information, but thought I would share it with anyone who might be interested. I know this small sampling of trucks is not representative of all trucks and I do not intend it to be. It's just trivial infomation.

 

I forgot to add...Oddly enough, there were no Mustang II suspensions among the 12 trucks I saw. I thought that was rather strange since that is such a common suspension.

 

Hmmmm, interesting.

Wonder what the result would be if we would ask the 25 most active users on this forum. Guess we would see a much higher percentage of Ford engines and I also guess we would see a much higher percentage of non "Camaro clip" drivers.

As for me:
- stock solid axle in front
- 9" Ford Rear End
- 289 SB Ford
- C4 tranny

Guess also another reason for that much non Ford hardware in many of these 48 - 56 Fords is that there's people who just like the looks of these and really do not care too much about Ford as such. And the next reason is certainly money (with Ch.... being cheaper) which I can't really accept as the same people put lotsa money in the looks (paint, wheels, interieur) which add easily to $15k to $20k figures. Having a Ford engine would probably be just another $1k - $2k. Over here in Germany where I believe we have at least 50 F1s/F100s I guess it is even more with Ch... engines as these are the only ones that you can (kinda) easily get.

Greetings from Germany !!!:-X12

 

[font face="Arial" size="4"]O.K. !!!!! NEW COUNTING THREAD !!!!! [/font]

everyone tell what they have and " 'fenders " will add it all up... he's not working on his truck anyway !!!


Mine....

Engine... FORD 460 engine

Front suspension... hmmm, that's a little tricky
has been stock.....
has been Volare...
Hopefully, thankfully and finally (I hope) is Mustang II (do I get three votes ??? )

Rear suspension ... FORD 9"


John (ever in a state of flux) Niolon

 

1956 F-250
Stock 272 Y-block
Stock solid axle suspension
Stock Dana 60 rear with 4.56 ratio

 

Here goes:

Engine 350 ci Brand X
Tranny 700r4 Brand X
Rearend 9" Ford
Front Suspension Mustang II
Column GM keyed

Frankly the cost of the conversion never entered my mind. It was ease of install and the brand X seemed less complicated with things getting in the way of each other.

Tim

By the way, my paint is Ford also--Laser Red Metallic clearcoat

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 05-Dec-02 AT 04:29 PM (EST)]Front suspension: Solid Front Axel.
Rear end: 9in
Engine: 292 y-block

I found the camaro front clips very surprising. The one truck sounded like he should have bought an actual do*ge truck.
The results from "fenders" should be very interesting.
Basically mines stock.

 

Twin I-Beam suspension
302 EFI
AOD transmission

 

Front is Spicer/Dana 44-4F 3.92
Rear is Ford 9" 3.89
Spicer/Dana Transfer
1972 390 C.I.D. from Thunderbird donor
I dont think brand X is cheaper when you have to replace the same parts 3 times as much!!!
Matt

 

1956 F100
1957 272 Y-block
stock front straight axle
stock rear end

 

OK, As the assigned accountant for this thread. Here's what we got so far.

5 cool guys with Ford engines

1 Chevy guy who shows some promise with a few Ford parts, very few, but I haven't given up hope just yet.

1 Smart A$$ with a Big Block

1 German

1 Vern, the jury is still out until he makes his decision. Good thread by the way.

Updates will follow as appropriate and don't be surprised as I promise the accounting categories will change. I am feeling pretty chipper now that my truck is removed from my eye. Darn that smarted.

Be back soon.

'fenders

 

55 F-100
460
Heidts Superide II in front
8.8,coil over,3 link in the rear

 

fenders
What do you mean a few Ford parts? As my significant other will testify there are a ton of Ford parts in her dining room! She's actually very understanding and wouldn't want my fenders, grill, etc scratched either.

Let's try to keep this a scientific statistical study and not knock each others work product. We do however need a larger universe for anything on this thread to be statistically significant. Let's not scare anyone off. We may all learn something.

Tim

 

Here's my stats data. 48 F1
351W engine
Volare suspension
8.8 Ford rear

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 05-Dec-02 AT 08:20 PM (EST)]Hey De-Wayne ???

do you know PlumCrazy55 well enough to call him a Smart A$$ ???
you should be more careful... some of us BIG BLOCK guys are the sensitive types....


BTW... I love the $$ signs in A$$ makes me think I got money

When you run out of fingers, let me know and I'll help you count...

john