Question for Rolf

[Keith L.]

Saw your picture of your "41 club Coupe. I too have a '41.

The engine in mine was switch years ago to a Cad engine. (I've asked several questions to you before about the conversion) Since the Cad engine is lighter than the original, the body sits a little higher. It also has 15" wheels with wide whites. I would like to lower it to it's orginal height. Did you encounter this with your "41. Should I get longer shackles? Remove a leaf? Tourch the spring? Also, my car does not have wraped springs (wraped in tin for dust. etc.) as my '41 Ford did. Should they be. Thanks for any help.

[Rolf]

Hi Kieth, torching the spring and long shackles are definite no-no's, as they disturb the excellent handling of the LZ, the sanitary way is to have the front spring rebuilt to your new weight specs, that should get it down to the original heigth, and it will ride better, and handle as good as new, never saw much advantage to the wrapped springs, had some really squeaky ones long ago, just like the unwrapped ones, if you do encounter squeaks, the best cure is to disassemble the spring, and apply heavy wheel bearing grease between the leaves, a big dangerous job, but it will usually solve the problem, "'41's FOREVER", Rolf

[Keith L.]

Rolf, What type of shop rebuilds springs and what do they do when they "rebuild"? I need to drop the car about 1 1/2 inches. Do I just take the whole spring to them, without "unloading it"("dangerous")?

Thanks for your help.

[Rolf]

Long ago Kieth, when I had an Obsolete Ford parts store we just ordered what we wanted, or turned in the old spring as a core, haven't had one done since the '60's, but springs still break and need to be rebuilt, there were regular business's that used to do it, the numbers you are coming up with seem irregular to me though, 1 1/2" difference with a heavy Cad engine is a lot, seems like my buddy long ago put an Olds and hydro in his '41 Connie, and it didn't hardly change at all from where it was with the V-12, seems to me Ricko on this Forum just went through a similar problem on his '41, how about it Rick??

[Rolf]

Hey Kieth, just had another thought, what size 15" tires are you running front and rear?? There are "tall" 15's and short 15's, could be making all the difference, as the postwars that came with the 15's had lowered spindles, that set the whole stance of those cars much lower, just a thought, but something seems out of whack here, Rolf

[Keith L.]

Rolf,

The standard 15" tire for the '42 LZ was 700-15 which Firestone sells has a diameter of 29.30. I put Coker classics on which are cheaper, have a wider footprint and are 29.29 in Diameter. Other than wider, I thought they matched up pretty well. Being wider, the spair now does not fit in the wheel well in the trunk AND I can't put balance weights on the inside because the tie rod to spindle knock them off. As you know,the original 16" rim for the 41 took a 700-16 tire. New Firestones for that size measure 30.39 in diameter. Different '42 spindles might make a little difference. Your thoughts.

P.S. Did you ever live in Burbank, CA? I was born in Glendale and lived in Burbank for 47 years.

[Rolf]

Sure did Kieth, and my Obsolete Ford Parts store, named Big Joe's Obsolete Ford Parts was there too at 3317 Burbank Blvd in the 1960's, actually my '41 is being built by my son in Burbank right now as we speak. I am baffled by the 1 1/2 inch rise in the heigth of your front-end, I think the rebuilt spring route is probally the best solution, as just changing to the later spindles might throw the geometry off, but the wheel weight problem might be solved if you used '42-'48 front brakes, which would fit the 15" wheels properly, does your car ride especially hard in the front?? Like there is too stiff a spring up there? Would be interesting to know the respective weights of the V-12 and Cad engines, last I heard the 12 was 640 lbs, but that data is suspect, Rolf

[peecher]

To accomodate that spare, the trunk "platform" can be raised by placing spacers under the wood platform at the mounting points on the sides and in the front. When you raise the platform you will have to trim off a little on each side at the back. The center of gravity for that Cad engine is probably further towards the rear of your car depending on where it is situated in the engine compartment? As Rolf says if the car rides a bit tough maybe a couple of leaves removed from the front spring might lower it a tad along with softening up the ride?

[Guest imported_V12Bill]

Dee, I recently purchased 7:00 X l5 Firestone tires from Coker and the spare would not fit in the compartment. I had to raise the floor about 3/4" and trim the rear side panels. I was told by someone at a GOF that Coker has changed the profile of the tire for some reason or other neccessatating this alteration of the spare compartment. Has anyone else run into this problem?

Bill

[DizzyDale]

Dear V12Bill,Different marque,same problem.Coker tire would fit in the well of my 62 Corvette but the plywood cover is a 1/2 inch high.Want to know THEIR fix.....how about under inflate the spare,real nice.Get a flat on the road and go ahead and bolt that flat spare on.diz