Old shock question

[phat46]

I acuired  a pair of these dampers today; they appear to function and the chrome is in decent shape, in the picture it looks rusty, but it is not. Does anyone know anything about these? they were on an old hot rod truck my brother bought over 25 yrs ago. I'd like to use them on my next project. It looks like they would be rebuildable if needed, but do any parts exist for them?

[enjenjo]

Yesthey are rebuildable, and yes there are parts for them. Several people advertise in Hemmings.

[47 ragtop]

These were very popular in late 60's -early 70's on highboy radsters. They were from furrin cars , mostly  MG'S etc.

[phat46]

Yesthey are rebuildable, and yes there are parts for them. Several people advertise in Hemmings.

Thanks guys, can they be run either front or rear?

[enjenjo]

yes, they can run on either end. If you have them rebuilt, tell the builder what the front and rear weight of the car is, they can be adjusted to work better with that weight.

[TKD_Master38]

Hey Gang,

Searching back through the dusty recesses of my memory banks...these are know as Houadaille type shocks.  The early fords used them, I believe up[ until 1948.  and the smaller ones came from MGs, etc.  My old '34 Buick had a arm front suspension with a variation of these in between the arms.

The main reason that the auto industry went away from them is that tube shocks are so much cheaper to produce.

I still think that these  and/or friction shocks are the way to go on an old timey car especially a roadster where the suspension is visible.

Bruce