While i respect your opinion about the truck you have to understand that my particular example is hardly a nuts and bolts restoration candidate. It's a straight 6 and has had a pretty rough life as a field truck so i'm not really destroying a mint condition truck.

I've done the restoration path before, now i would like to do the modern equptment in an old shell approch.

If this were a Y block truck or something in mint condition I would agree with you, but that's just not the direction i want this truck to go in.

 

mechmagcn:

I didn't see your response. I agree with what you said. I would like a have a more pleasant ride and on road experience than the truck gives now because to be honest it's not a nice ride as is.

With regards to the springs in the back, i'm going to try and use the CV springs even if that means moving the mounts or adding mounts to my original rearend. The truck just needs to be softened a little and made into more of a cruiser than a high payload badboy.

 

Good luck, I looked at the rear suspension of the Lincoln donor I had, looked to be a extensive fabrication job to install.

 

well that's not terribly encouraging... I'll check out the CV thoroughly before I start cutting anything up.

I did a little looking and haven't really found a good shot of the rear suspension for one of these. I was assuming they were leaf springs, but the more i look i'm not so sure they are. I could always buy a set of leafs and mount them to the diff.

 

My work vehicle is a 2006 Silverado, and that rides every bit as harsh as my '60 F100 (with radials). Maybe I have that thought backwards, that the F100 is just as smooth as my 3 year old GM. Probably PART of the reason they're on the ropes right now. I have no reason to change anything but brakes on the F100.

hotrod...I was actually assuming the opposite, that the CV will have coils...Advance Auto Parts online (good site) confirms that, they show rear coils for a 2006 CV Police.

 

Oh, well that does make the whole thing interesting. I hadn't realised that they were coil in the rear. I've been on some other threads for some time now and one was using the CV 8.8 and leaf springs, probably from another doner vehicle. I might have to go back and ask that user about that rear end setup and see what's up.

Here's the thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...67-f100-4.html

Post 57 has a picture of the diff and there are a bunch of posts regarding whether the leafs should be mounted under or above the rear axle. There are way too many pages to reread but I'll shoot the OP a message asking about that.

If they're not leaf springs my decision might be easier, i'll probably end up keeping the 9 inch and figuring out the brake question as i go.

Thanks for bringing that up, I should have paied closer attention the last time I looked at a CV.

EDIT: I reread a few posts on that thread and the OP says that he was going to scrap the stock 4 link and go with leafs. I don't know if they're the ones that used to be on his truck or if he got them from somewhere else, i'll have to do some more investigating. I defiantly don't want to try and rig up the 4 link, that would be a little much for this project i think.

 

The Crown Vic for all years (except 55/56) has rear coils.
A lot of guys are cleaning up the housings and welding on pads to use them with leafs.
Take a close look at one. It might work well to mount it with the coil
set up. I've never looked at one with that in mind.

Good luck.
Sounds like a nice set up if you can make it fit with out too much hassle.

 

I'll have to wait to make my final decision regarding the rear end until i have the car so i can play around and see what looks doable.

I'm getting pretty excited to get my hands dirty at this point. Once summer hits i can get back to work on the body and hopefully have that looking pretty by mid summer or so. With that out of my mind i think i'll be able to devote the time and energy to this that it needs. I just figure that the more questions and research i do now the better off i will be down the road.

 

When you get started on the suspension work be sure to post the progress.

I have a '57 F-100 waiting. It will be getting a C-Vic front suspension along with a yet undecided powerplant transplant. I will probabbly stay with the factory rear for now but anything is possible later. Just have to get a couple other projects a little farther along first.

I haven't found any info on anyone doing this with a 57/60 but all my measuring make me believe it will be a good swap.

Good luck
Richard

 

I haven't seen any examples of those model year either, but according to the other thread i referenced, the front crossmember of the CV is 34 inches which is the same width as the truck's frame, should make it almost a bolt in like it was for the guy in that thread.

And i'll be sure to post my progress, that way when i get lost and all fouled up I can turn here for help and inspiration

 

...maybe I missed it...but..."where" are you located?

 

Please have a look at this thread, lots of info, someone has also done the rear, bagged I think;

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...-1959-s-b.html

 

I had a 57 some time back that I installed the front clip and rear end from a 90 Lincoln Towncar. The front clip was very hard to get on and I never liked it. I didn't get to drive it with the front on, but it was an engineering nightmare (of which I am not one). The rear end was pretty easy. I had to grind off all the things that pertained to the Lincoln (this one had airbags - I really wanted to keep it, but the 4-link could not be fabricated to fit the truck). I like the width after I got the body panels back on. I thought the original set up was sucked under the fenders too much.

I hope everybody knows that the early 9" rear ends weren't very good. They were weak and had problems cracking. Most problems weren't fixed until the mid 70's. They definitely aren't the 9"ers that NASCAR runs.

 

My sentiments exactly!

 

Okay, sorry, it's been a while. I've been spending some time on the truck's body, some surface rust and some body work is still needed, but i'm making some progress.

Now, on the the rear suspension question. I'm still pretty comfortable about using the CV's rearend, but the suspension back there is a little up in the air yet. I think what I want to do is get leaf springs from something else to put back there, maybe even the perches to so that I could just weld them to the frame once they're in position and call it good. My question is what sort of vehicle should I be looking for? I don't really want to use truck spings because i feel like it's just going to kill the ride improvement that the front suspension will give. I'd also like to get something that's new enought that I could just buy new ones rather than worry about finding good ones.

Any ideas?