51 ford front end- need opinions.

[chimp koose]

Small detail I forgot. Have a look at a stock truck and see if you like the position of the front wheel in the fender opening. I think I added 3/4" to the wheelbase to center the wheel better.The wheel looks pushed back in stock position.

[enjenjo]

You might look here too, it's a Dakota clip on an F1  You don't get the advantage of the late model drivetraing though. It does give you an idea of how it fits       http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/f1-front-end-234984.html

[unklian]

Does the Crown Vic front end fit those early Fords?

They are pretty wide.

[GPster]

This would be an entirely different idea. Years ago I put '48 truck spindles on a '48 car axel. I did this because the truck had Bendix brakes and it just happened that the kingpin diameter and the kingpin inclination of the car and truck where the same. If the kingpins on the '51 are the same as the '48  you could go to any '28 to '48 car specialty spindles and brakes that would give you any wheel bolt pattern. Disc brakes would allow smaller diameter wheels too. Using bolt-on steering arms you could cross-steer rather than drag-link steer (opening up steering box choices). I'm sure somewhere there'd be a set of dropped arms that would miss the longitudinal springs. With the kingpin size and inclination the same as cars (like the '48 was) I figure that someone could "drop" that axel and you could play around with those front springs. I once took a set of front springs like that and re-contoured the main leaf upside-down giving me a 1" drop. I'm sure you could get more with the rest of the leafs loose. While that bed's off "C" the rear frame rails. These suggestions might appear odd from someone that has a '48 Jeepster on an '87 S10 chassis but I didn't have anything to work with. It's been 8 years since I started that and I still don't have something I could drive. GPster