Bones To Bars

The larger wishbones were cut to length for use as lower arms, and are fastened at the front pivot points on the outside framerails with standard early Ford polished stainless steel tie rod ends (for a more traditional appearance) and weld-in stainless bungs.

The framerails were drilled the diameter of the bungs, which were cut the exact width of the frame, and will be welded on both sides of the 'rails.

The bung diameter is large enough to get a socket into the inside of the framerail to reach the nut. The castle nut shown in this photo was supplied with the tie rod end, and used temporarily while mocking up the arms, it will be replaced with a self-locking Nylock nut at finally assembly.

The rearward end of each lower arm was drilled and sleeved for the urethane bushings that will provide the lower rear link points.

This will be out of sight when mounted.

The lower arms are fastened by a bolt to pivot on rear axle brackets that you're about to see made. Notice that one of the yoke flanges was ground off. The other has been retained and will eventually be heated and bent into position for use as a lower shock mount. After being ground and dressed, it will look great.

In addition to the relatively simple brackets that mount the upper bars, Ryan designed and built the brackets that will connect the lower bars to the rear axle.

Our spatial skills not being what they used to, we had a hard time envisioning how those assorted pieces of plasma cut, 1/8-inch steel plate would become a pair of brackets until Ryan mocked it up for us. The straight lower portion will hold the lower bar; the curved upper portion and the thick-wall tubing at the end will hold the spring perch for the Model A high-arch leaf springs. They meet at the axle. When welded, the curved I-beam design will be very strong but also lightweight.

As with a lot of fabrication, perfectly fitting the long, curved bottom piece of the brackets involved a combination of eyeballing and trial-and-error, helped by Ryan's experience in working with sheetmetal.

The brackets were tack welded and temporarily mounted on the axle, with the lower arms in position. The square tubing is still in place to set the ride height. The drop in the rear brackets that holds the lower arms was determined carefully to make sure the lower bars are parallel to the ground at ride height. In this case, it's approximately 4 1/2 inches lower than the axle centerline.

This matches the position of the front pivot points where the lower bars connect to the framerails so that-like the upper arms-the front and rear pivot points are horizontal at ride height. As you can see, this photo was taken before the spring mount was cut from the lower four-bar.

Here is the welded bracket with the shackles (from Reid's Rod Parts), springs, and lower four-bar in place.

The four-bar suspension not only looks good, it will provide reliable performance. When the body goes back on, and only those lower bars are visible, people may think the roadster is running split wishbones. Only you and I will know the truth.