Ok, I've finally decided that what I want and what I can afford are two different things. I was in the garage the other day with my 7 yr. old son when he looked up at me and said, "Daddy when are we going to finish this truck?" My response to him was, "well, it's gonna take a while and you and your son will probably be finishing this project". That got me to start thinking realisticly. I have been going back and forth between the MII setup's and the Volare and Jag setups. I have decided to go practical since I don't plan on entering every show I can find.

My question is which suspension would be better between the Volare and the Jag? What are the good and bad of each and which one is easier to install? Also, in terms of rebuilding them are there parts available more for one over the other? I have read that there is a bushing for the volare that isn't available is this still the case?

Any opinions on these would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

The "practical" answer is to stay with the stock solid axle and leaf springs. A good rebuild on that is most certainly the economical answer and is much easier to do than eith the volare or jag IFS.

 

I'm with Randy on this one. Rebuild the original, get the truck up and running, build some memories with yoru son. When he is of driving age later on you can tag team the project and upgrade to independant front suspension then.

Good luck
Bobby

 

The reason I am looking to upgrade is because the bar (not sure what it's called) is bent from the P.O. Im talking about the one that is used to stear or control both wheels. It looks like someone tied a rope or something around it and pulled the truck. Besides that I already have the frame stripped down with only the front and rear suspension still on it. I was planning to clean up the frame and start building it from there. Since I already have the truck in it's present state I figure a IFS upgrade would be in order at this point and the Volare or Jag would be an affordable upgrade. An IFS suspension is something that I would like to get behind me and get the ball rolling from there.

 

I'm not so sure it's that much cheaper? I priced everything to do my stock front end (drums, wheel cylinders, shoes, brake spring kits, king pins, dropped axle and dropped steering arms, leaf springs) and it cost more than the MII stuff I bought. That's a worse case scenerio but that's how you have to look at it as far as I'm concerned or you are lying to yourself to justify your actions. You can go into it thinking just a set of shoes and some new shocks will fix it but these trucks are getting old and a total rebuild is probably in order. (My opinion)

The stock pieces might (notice I said might) be easier to do but I'm not too sure they are cheaper. If you take the drop axle out of the equation then the stock stuff is cheaper. The tall ride height didn't suit my tastes so that wasn't an option.

Just another way of looking at it.

I would be interested to see what everyone's opinion of the Volare front suspension is as far as ride and drive. Looking at doing that to my other truck ('61 Unibody) as an option. How about trimming the stock mounting ears off one so it looks better once you're done, anyone doing that? I want form and function.

Thanks,
SPark

 

My truck was sitting in a field somewhere outside of Dallas for many years and I would think that the front probably would need a total rebuild. I am the type of person that likes to get something done right the first time and I don't like having to go back and redo things down the road, that's why Im looking for a good functional alternative to what I have now.

 

Have you read the article/articles about the different types?
https://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/10/0/
I am sure there are other opinions around, but these give some good insight.

 

Mine is the stock suspension, but everything has been rebuilt. It does not ride bad at all. Also, I do not want mine low. I drive this thing. I do not baby it. It is a truck.

 

Yes, there is a lot of good information in those articles but I was looking more for opionions of those who have done the upgrade and their first or second hand opinions on them.

 

i am in the process of upgrading my suspension, but instead of spending thousands of dollars just to get IFS on a 52 year old truck

i instead opted to spend 900 bucks and buy a running driving truck (thats only 16 yrs old) with ifs, discs, a efi v8, a fresh auto tranny, a good rearend, power steering, and the list goes on.

granted the frame swap is a lot of work, but i have managed to get the body of the ford up on the new frame in the spread of a couple of weekends, yes the frame is wider, no it isnt a big deal, for the front cab mounts i have to plate out the stock gmc mounts and drill one hole. for the rear cab arm mounts instead of being at 45, they will be at 90 or so

but to each his own

 

OK then I will start, although the Volare clip came installed on the frame when I bought it and I have just under 500 kms on it so far, I am pleased with the ride.
I always say Ford trucks drive like trucks and Chev trucks drive like cars. So IMHO it feels more car like than the Ford trucks I am used to.
I haven't screwed around lowering it yet, that will be this winter The steering is smooth and quick, no werid things happen over bumps, around corners etc etc.
The only negative I see so far is the freakin' huge steering box the headers wound up really close to it, of course the passenger side inner fender is really close to it, it is so huge LOL

 

I chose to stick with the straight axle front end simply for simplicity. It's easy to work with. With all the aftermarket stuff out there, you can achieve the same ride, or close to as the IFS front ends. I also like the look of the straight axles and gives the truck that vintage hot rod look. I've found out the hard way, there is NO economic way of doing suspensions. At least I haven't heard of one??????

 

Here is my two cents worth. I rebuilt the straight axle on my 53 and was not happy with it. I wanted it to sit lower and drive more like a car. I spent most of the seventies and eighties as a front end alignment man and I would never use a chrysler front suspension on anything. Sure they ride nice and you can adjust the torsion bars to make it sit as high or low as you want but I went with the mustang II mostly to get the advantage of rack and pinion, Also with the Volare you cut away alot of the frame to make it fit. If you do the work yourself, you can do the mustang II for $1500-$2000. That's not cheap but some things you can't skimp on.

 

No one brings up the other option, the ford aerostar. I have only 22 miles on it yet and learned my lesson to do it the first time as I left in the lower ball joints which felt good but didn't pass wheel alignment, but oh well...LOL.
It drives well so far, readily availible at the junk yard cheap, ($100 with the rack and pinion), bushings, balljoints and other parts are easy to get across the counter, though are not super cheap. If you are decent at welding it is simple to fabricate with only a few minor pieces of mild steel to box in and make a bracket or two. Can be done with out cutting the frame at all for a 4 inch drop at least and with cutting you can take it lower. I did cut 1.5 inches out of my coils to get a little extra drop. Gives you a modern suspension that takes the weight and gives you the upgrades to disc brakes and rack & pinion steering. It gives you a nice ride height for a daily driver, only thing that would be nice is drop spindles for the lower option, but can't have it all using junk yard parts.
See my gallery for somepictures of the install and the finished truck. The rear end uses a new TCI spring set with my rear end flipped on top of the leafs.
Mymerc

 

I'm using the Volare in my 48. I like it a lot since the truck drives like a car. I haven't done the Jag route so I can't say anything one way or another on that. I know parts are available for the Volare although as you said the front pivot bushings may be getting harder to find. If you find a used suspension with good pivot bushings though you will probably never need to replace them. Most of the time they last the lifetime of the suspension. Look for obvious cracks or deterioration of the rubber. The Volare is easy to install and it's been done a million times so you know it can be done with no problems. I replaced the upper ball joints, stabilizer bushings, upper and lower control arm bushings, and shocks on mine. The suspension had been previously rebuilt with new rotors, calipers, lower ball joints, and tie rods. I got all the parts at NAPA. The only drawback I have found about the Volare is the big honkin' steering box but you can get around that by placing the engine up to two inches to the passenger side...which, but the way, was actually done in the Chryslers it comes out of.