Thread: About to (maybe) buy my first hotrod. Please school me on 1931 Ford Coupes

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Another issue about MII front ends is that they were designed with much of the weight of the motor essentially sitting almost on top of the crossmember. In an A-bone or a '32, the motor sits further back in the chassis, which reduces the loading on the front end. In my '30 sedan, none of the motor was over the axle. In fact the fan was behind it. If I remember correctly, I also used much lighter springs than one would expect. (BTW, the weird angles of the tires is from a wide angle lens)

front1.jpg

Note the upward angle of the upper A-arm, and that the lower arm and the rack are both parallel with the ground.

front2.jpg

When I built this, several people told me I couldn't put a M-II suspension under an A-bone, or a 454 motor in it. Fancy that.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

When I built this, several people told me I couldn't put a M-II suspension under an A-bone, or a 454 motor in it. Fancy that.

Yup and the earth is flat...lol

Another thing I did when I first started getting into hot rods was cut out a bunch of pictures out of magazines and post them up on a wall (I was a kid) and I found that early to mid 30's cars ticked my fancy. You could do the same thing with downloading pictures from the internet and post them in the appropriate folders and just see what file has the most pictures. This will also give you what build styles you are drawn to. Then go to some events and talk to owners of this type of vehicle and tell them your getting into it and see if they would let you sit in their car. lets face it I love the look of a chopped and channeled coupe but I know it's not for me because of the way "I'm" built (though both my cars are chopped). If someone came up to me at a show and wanted to try my car on for size, I'd be more than happy to help him out. So long as he didn't have spurs on and a chain wallet banging against my paint...LOL Trust me there is nothing worse than buying a car your not truly into. You'll lose interest and it will just sit or you'll sell it cheap and lose money. One more thing. Have reasonable expectations on ride quality. It's never gonna drive like a Lexus.

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Another issue about MII front ends is that they were designed with much of the weight of the motor essentially sitting almost on top of the crossmember. In an A-bone or a '32, the motor sits further back in the chassis, which reduces the loading on the front end. In my '30 sedan, none of the motor was over the axle. In fact the fan was behind it. If I remember correctly, I also used much lighter springs than one would expect.

At last count, I think Eaton Detroit Spring had 16 different springs for the MII system, so it's not a problem to dial in the correct spring for any car using that system...
https://www.eatondetroitspring.com/

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