An Introduction (and a couple questions)

[Bruce/Texas]

Hello Ford Barners,

I have been following the Ford Barn for a good while now. I have posted a few times but mostly I have just been "listening" and trying to learn as much as I can from the vast amount of knowledge which comes from the Ford Barn. I still own my first car, a 1939 Standard coupe which I bought in 1972 at the tender age of 16. At that time, I installed an 8BA engine (the original block was cracked), rebuilt the brakes, cleaned it up, painted it and installed an interior pretty much on my own. I drove it full time for two years until it was vandalized in the parking lot at college at which point I parked it in my parent’s garage until I graduated and had my own garage.

Over the years, I have installed ’53 Ford ½ ton pickup brakes on the front axle and added tube shocks all around. The new brakes required converting to wheels with the 5 X 5 1/2” lug pattern in lieu of the wide fives. I also converted to 12V somewhere along the way. Other than that, the car is pretty much stock. Today the car still runs and drives but needs a little bit of everything to get it roadworthy and looking good again. My plan was to wait until I retired (about 5 years from now) to take it all apart and basically rebuild it from the frame up incorporating any drivability improvements which did not detract from the basically stock look. I wanted to lower the front a little (not too much), add sway bars, improve the brakes, freshen up the flathead, new paint, upholstery, door and window seals etc, etc.

My plan has changed in that my son has requested to have the car in shape to use as his get-away car in his upcoming wedding (this was my get-away car as well). Now I have roughly 12 months to make the car safe and reliable and looking sharp. As I am still working and with other family commitments, I will not have the time to start from the ground up as I had planned so I will be attacking the rebuild with an emphasis on expedience without sacrificing safety and reliability.

With apologies for the long winded introduction, I have the first two questions (of many to come I’m sure) for the greater Ford Barn. Thanks in advance for your input.

Question 1: The original stock front spring has sagged to the point that the top of the axle is about 1 ½” from the bottom of the rubber frame bumper. The spring is also deflected to the point where is parallel to the ground to slightly “reversed” from its normal curvature. What is a reasonable amount of spring travel? Should I replace the spring with a “Posies” spring and if so, should I use the stock or reversed eye version of the spring keeping in mind that I would like to lower the front a little bit from stock? Is it possible to just re-arch my current spring? Anyone re-arch the spring themselves?

Question 2: I will rebuild the brake system completely with new parts throughout. I have read on the Ford Barn of folks converting to a dual master cylinder from the stock cylinder. Is this modification a real worthwhile endeavor?

Thanks Again, Bruce

[Old Henry]

Welcome, Bruce.

Looks like you're going to be doing about the same as my 15 year old son and I did 4 years ago. My car was bought in 1959 when I was just 7 years old and has been in the family ever since. It sat for 31 years by my mom's house until 4 years ago when, over a one year period of time, my son's and my goal were just to preseve the family heirloom by painting, upholstering, and any mechanical work that did not change it from original. So, about what you're doing, we've "been there and done that."

With regard to your front spring - I can tell you that we had the same problem with ours. Clear from the time I drove it in high school (in the 60's) I knew that the bottom spring was broken. What I didn't know until we took the spring off and took it apart was that 9 leaves were broken and causing the front end to ride low. We had the whole spring rebuilt by the local spring maker. That's what we did to ours. Yours might, in fact, have one or more broken leaves that you need to replace to get it to really work right. Here's a picture of ours. (Ours is a 47 so might be a bit different than yours.) See if you can find the 11 broken spots.



We've even had a few "get aways." Here's one of them. Lots of fun.



The old Fords are great props for any wedding picture. This is one of my favorites taken right after one wedding (we've had three in the last year.)

[36tbird]

Bruce, I'm down on the NW side of San Antonio. I have a bunch of old spring parts laying around. If you determine you need leaves, let me know.

[Jack E/NJ]

Bruce wrote:>>>dual master cylinder from the stock cylinder. Is this modification a real worthwhile endeavor?>>>

Absolutely!

Jack E/NJ

[19Fordy]

It's great that you can now begin gathering up the goodies to make your 39 come to life again. With everything else remainingg stock , when I installed the Posie reversed eye spring in my 40 Ford coupe it lowered the stock front end 1 inch. Magnum 4 in. dropped axle dropped it another 2 in. this also req'd using Magnum dropped steering arms and shortening the drag link and tie rod as I used the Magnum axle which is 3/4 in narrower than the stock axle -
to improve fender/tire clearance. Amd , "YES" the dual master cylinder is a great improvement.Don't mount it on the firewall. Keep in stock location.

[Walt Dupont--Me.]

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My son-inlaw built a beautyfull 40 pickup, the front end road hard, he almost put in a Mustang front end but I told him to get a Monoleaf spring for front, they come with spacers to put on top or bottom of the leaf to what ever ride hight you like. It made a big differance in ride and easy to install, and my daughter is fussy. They make an adapter to put on a dual master cyl right where you origanal is. SO, those 2 projects won't take you long. Walt

[Clem Clement]

I bought an NOS front spring for my 39 pickup from Dennis Carpenter.
clem

[Bruce/Texas]

Thanks to all for the replies! I'll pull the spring off and check it out. If it looks good, I will probably re-arch it to get about 3" or so of total axle travel as well as install liners between the leaves. Any opinions on liners vesus just greasing. My stock spring has two full length leaves, one with the eyelets formed on the ends and a secondary leaf just above that wraps about half way around the eyelet on the main leaf. Is this stock? None of the pictuires I have seen show the second full length leaf.

[Old Henry]

You may have already looked up all of this in your own green bible. If not, here's what it shows for your front spring.



Looks like just one spring for your 1939 truck.



Likewise, there is just one number for the second leaf on your spring which is the same for all second leaves from 32 to 41 with the exception that some have a suffix of A or B. Whether that would indicate a different length or not I don't know.



I put the plastic inserts between my leaves for a permanent fix without having to worry about grease eventually dissapating and having to be re-greased.

[joel]

The front springs I have from 40's all have the wrap over 2nd leaf (4)

[Bruce/Texas]

Again, thanks for the replies.

19Fordy (and others too), can you tell me the distance from the top of your axle to the bottom of the frame? I'm trying to get a feel for about how much axle travel there would be with the reversed Posie spring. Also, it appears that the dual reservoir master cylinder is the way to go. I have read varying reports as to what master cylinder piston diameter to use with an all drum system. My brakes are stock '39 on the rear and '53
1/2 ton pickup on the front.