Chassis, Brakes and Suspension

Click on any picture for a larger image (opens in new tab).

This web page is about restoring/resto-rodding a 1950 Ford F-1 pickup, and is one of a series of articles documenting the project. I am providing this in the hope that it is helpful to fellow Ford truck owners, but beware that there are many ways to accomplish the same goals... I have only shown one way. Also, keep in mind, that my comments are specific to this year, make and model, and should not be generalized. Feel free to drop me a line if you see mistakes or need more information, but please understand if it takes me a while to respond. To go back to the main project page click here.

Our Plan

You can buy IFS (independent front suspension) kits for 48-52 Ford F-1 pickups, but my plan was to simply convert the front brakes from drums to discs, swap the master cylinder out for a dual-piston type, and powder coat the frame, keeping most everything else stock.

Frame

After removing the body from the frame, we had to cut the factory crossmember and fabricate a new transmission mount for the T-5 transmission we swapped into the truck, see the T-5 tranny swap article for details.

Modified crossmember and new trans mount

There were a couple of small cracks in each of the frame rails that we weld repaired. The cracks were all behind the rear axle. We think at one time the truck had a flatbed installed on it, and the cracks were all in an area where it appears that something had been previously welded on and then subsequently removed. In any case these were easily repaired with a MIG welder.

I like the durability of powder coat - once the frame is coated, you never have to worry about it again - so we had the frame and front axle powder coated by Images 'n Iron (which took 6 business days and cost $400). I chose the "Silver Vein" powder coat, since I like the looks of it and it hides dirt well. You can have your springs, spindles, and rear axle coated as well but we didn't have these parts stripped down at the time we took the frame in for powder coating so they are painted chassis black (FYI to coat a rear axle it has to be completely disassembled because the bake cycle for powder coating is ~450F and would melt your seals).

Brakes

All F-1's had manual drum brakes, front & rear, and a single piston master cylinder. We converted the front brakes to discs and updated the master cylinder to a dual piston design. This is an easy conversion, and kits are readily available. I stayed with manual brakes, mainly because I didn't see the need for power brakes and because I knew we were going to have to modify the crossmember to which the master cylinder attaches for the transmission swap. Its quite possible to install both a T-5 tranny and have power brakes - don't be scared off from doing that - I just didn't see the need for power brakes. You can buy complete kits from ECIand Classic Performance Products, including power brake kits. I split my order up between ECI and Speedway to save some money, but in doing so I settled for some remanufactured parts. ECI has a nice kit with all new parts if you're willing to spend the money.

Here are the parts needed for this conversion:

From Speedway:

1@ 910-31964 - 1948-56 Pick Up Deluxe Brake Kit, 5 on 5-1/2", $280. This kit includes everything you need to covert the axles from drums to discs: spindle brackets & mounting hardware, 12" rotors (11.75, actually) with 5 on 5-1/2" lug pattern (from 73-93 F-150), brake pads, rebuilt '69-77 GM "big car" calipers with 7/16-20 inlets, bearings and seals. This kit includes the inner bearing adapter and spacer washer for the outer bearing so you can run standard F-100 bearings. Speedway sources the brackets and hardware from Classic Performance, and the rest of the parts are either remanufactured or sourced from China (like the bearings). You can also get 5 on 4-1/2" (#910-31914) or 5 x 4-3/4" (#910-31917) lug patterns, but if you choose this option you get 11" rotors instead of a 12".

From ECI:

1@ EC-410A, Master Cylinder Adapter, $49. This is an adapter plate to which allows you to bolt in a later style 2 bolt master cylinder using the 3-bolt pattern on the crossmember.
1@ EC-445, 67-72 Mustang Master Cylinder, Dual Piston, New, $75.
1@ EC-526, Front Disc Hold Off Metering valve, $85. This is the proportioning valve for the front brakes, with a hold off feature so that the rear brakes engage first. This is a little different than most factory proportioning valves in that only the front brake lines connect here.
1@ EC-650, 2 PSI Residual Pressure Valve, $25. This is to keep 2 psi of pressure on the rear drums.
2@ EC-750, Brake Hoses, $50. Hose from the frame to the front calipers.

Installation of the kit is straightforward. The first step is to install the bearing adapter on the spindle. This adapter is needed so that you can run standard bearings and grease seal. It simply slides onto the spindle, with a couple of dabs of red (permanent) Locktite. The next step is to install the caliper brackets using the provided hardware, then install your bearings, grease seal, mount the rotors onto the spindle, and mount the calipers to the caliper brackets.

A couple of cautionary notes. First, you cannot install the king pins with the caliper brackets or rotor installed, so the spindles need to be installed on the axle before building up the spindle or rotor (unlike the picture above!). Second, if you are using a needle-bearing king pin kit (like Royal King Pin or the Speedway equivalent), there is not enough clearance between the grease zerk and the top of the caliper bracket for the grease gun nozzle head. This is easily fixed by using a 45 or 90 degree grease zerk and putting a small (~1/4") notch in the caliper bracket. In the picture below, notice the notch above the grease zerk.

Suspension

I bought most of my parts from Mac's Antique Auto Parts:

1@ 7C-5300-KT, Front Spring Shackle Kit, $58
1@ 7C-5630-KT, Rear Spring Shackle Kit, $58
2@ 7RC-3020, Front Axle Bumpers, $7 each
2@ 11A-3020, Rear Axle Bumpers, $6 each
4@ 11A-5599, Spring Anti-squeak Pad, $2 each. These are the pads that go between the axle perch and the bottom spring.
1@ 21A-3111-R, King Pin Set, $295 (this is the Royal King Pin set with roller bearings instead of bushings)

From Speedway (also available from Mac's, but I forgot to order these and needed them in a hurry, and Speedway is faster, at least when shipping to Texas):

2@ 910-33036-BLK, Spring Liner, 1-3/4" wide 20' roll, $13 each (for the front springs)
2@ 910-33037-BLK, Spring Liner, 2" wide 20' role, $15 each (for the rear springs)

From Sacramento Vintage Ford (also a last minute order after finding ours was worn):

1@ 07198, Pitman Arm, $65

The rest of the parts, like shock absorbers, were purchased from NAPA.

Removing the front shackle pins in the rear springs entails removing the pinch bolt and driving the pin out from the back side. This is easy enough for the rear spring hanger, but the front hanger (of the rear springs) has very limited access because to the factory crossmember is in the way. Our pins were pretty well stuck, so we had to drill a hole in each side of the crossmember so that we could insert a long drift and drive it out with a hammer.

The springs were disassembled, cleaned up, painted, then reassembled with the leaf spring liners from Speedway. Disassembling, cleaning, painting, and reassembling the spring packs was a lot of work, especially cleaning up all the rust. If I hadn't had access to a blast cabinet, I would have given up and ordered new spring packs from Macs, Sacramento, or C&G. In any case, if you re-use your springs, plan on replacing the center bolts, available from Macs, or you can go to your local bolt specialty store and get quality Grade 8 bolts with fine thread and allen heads (yes, it must be a round head, so take the factory bolt with you so they can match up something for you). The spring liners adds to the overall spring thickness and will not all you to install the bolts through the factory U bolts. We removed one leaf from each spring to improve ride quality, which also solved this issue. I'm not sure there is an "easy" way to reassemble the leaf springs, but what worked for us was to (1) stick a piece of all-thread through the center bolt hole to keep the springs aligned while stacking them, (2) then use the all-thread and 2 bolts & washers to compress the spring pack, then (3) use 2 C-clamps to hold the leafs while removing the all thread and installing the center bolt.

We used the Royal King Pin set, which has needle bearings instead of bushings. This is much more expensive than the standard king pin set, but it does save a trip to the machine shop to have it reamed to size. The 48-52 F-1 pickup uses the same king pin set as the 42-48 Ford passenger car, but this can be confusing because when you receive the kit from Mac's it will not list 48-52 trucks as an application. That's OK, it works, but there is a little quirk you should know about. The king pin rides a little lower in the truck application... it will protrude a little from the bottom of the axle, and be slightly depressed in the top (this is apparently caused by differences in the pinch bolt location between the car and truck). When installing the king pins, follow the instructions as printed but you need to install the upper bearing in the bottom part of the spindle a little below "flush"... this is so that the king pin can ride a little lower as mentioned, then install the thrust bearing and king pin and make sure the pinch bolt slot lines up with the hole, if it doesn't then you pressed the bearing in to far (just press is through completely and install it again).

Hits & Misses

Everything worked out pretty well, just look at the rolling chassis! In the future I think I would buy new springs or a monoleaf instead of restoring the originals.

Time Line

December 2009 - everything described here done in less an 1 month

Last Updated: Saturday April 24, 2010