Fatman front end

Unknown

I now have a little driving experience with my 48 coupe equipted with the Fatman clip. I am well satisfied, looks great under there and the ride is good.



The steering is super quick, more so than anything I have ever had. It takes some getting used to.



Fatman offered three springs, light, med. and heavy. I went with the medium and the top of the fender opening was at the top of the white wall and showed 2' of rear wheel using 3' lowering blocks with Poises rear leaf springs. I only had about 4' of clearance ,frame to ground at the middle of the car. It really looked great, but was not practical for the driving that I do.



I changed the front springs to the heavy that Fatman recomended and changed the lowering blocks from 3' to 2'. The fender now sets at the top of the tire and I am showing about 3' of rear wheel. I now have 6.5' of ground clearance at the middle of the rocker panel. The car rides and drives a lot better.



I am well pleased with the Fatman clip and I hope this gives a little insight into the Fatman clip.



Barry

[Deleted User]

Thanks Barry, its good to know I made a good choice. Now I just have to get it installed! Fatman's asked me what size motor I was putting in and I told them a 5.7L SBC. They said they would give me the V8 springs, hope those are the heavy ones.

Thanks for the review.

Unknown

Jay, I believe they said, 6cy, v8 or big block. I have an LS1 which is alum.and chose the v8 [med], did'nt work for me, had to change to the big block springs. This may be a quirk with the Hudson long wheel base, and the rear axle being so far to the rear. My car weighed 3920 lbs this week with about 15 gal of gas in it. I believe orig specs are about 3600 lbs probably without gas, so little difference. I don't know what to suggest, maybe big block with one coil removed. I had to buy the additional springs from NAPA at $80 which is no big deal.



Barry

rambos_ride

barry wrote:

I now have a little driving experience with my 48 coupe equipted with the Fatman clip. I am well satisfied, looks great under there and the ride is good.

The steering is super quick, more so than anything I have ever had. It takes some getting used to.

Fatman offered three springs, light, med. and heavy. I went with the medium and the top of the fender opening was at the top of the white wall and showed 2' of rear wheel using 3' lowering blocks with Poises rear leaf springs. I only had about 4' of clearance ,frame to ground at the middle of the car. It really looked great, but was not practical for the driving that I do.

I changed the front springs to the heavy that Fatman recomended and changed the lowering blocks from 3' to 2'. The fender now sets at the top of the tire and I am showing about 3' of rear wheel. I now have 6.5' of ground clearance at the middle of the rocker panel. The car rides and drives a lot better.

I am well pleased with the Fatman clip and I hope this gives a little insight into the Fatman clip.

Barry

Can you give us some pictures with the new stance?

rambos_ride

barry wrote:

Jay, I believe they said, 6cy, v8 or big block. I have an LS1 which is alum.and chose the v8 [med], did'nt work for me, had to change to the big block springs. This may be a quirk with the Hudson long wheel base, and the rear axle being so far to the rear. My car weighed 3920 lbs this week with about 15 gal of gas in it. I believe orig specs are about 3600 lbs probably without gas, so little difference. I don't know what to suggest, maybe big block with one coil removed. I had to buy the additional springs from NAPA at $80 which is no big deal.

Barry

Hmm - Do you have an idea where did all the extra weight come from?

I'm guessing I'm saving weight by installing my 454/Th400 over the original straight 8, cast iron trans and OD unit.

I was wondering if the Fatman Stub kit /new suspension/steering parts added the additional weight to your ride?

[Deleted User]

I'm not sure about your LWB cars, but the specs say mine weight is 3466lbs. Assume thats without gas. I thought we did a thread awhile back discussing engine/tranny weights and I thought we had come to the conclusion that a sbc weighted about as much as the flathead, maybe I'm wrong. I'm thinking about going to the airbags anyway, so I'd do away with the springs, just have to add the shock mount with the bags, since I'd be switching from coil overs to bags. Should've done that right away, cost diff was minimal, but live and learn!

Unless there's a big diff in the drivetrain weight, I can't imagine mine will weight much diff from the original (seems to be what you found out Barry). That front suspension weights pretty good from what I could tell from removing the one off my donor, I would think the Fatman weights less. But we probably have heavier rear ends, so all-in-all probably not much difference.

Unknown

barry wrote:

I now have a little driving experience with my 48 coupe equipted with the Fatman clip. I am well satisfied, looks great under there and the ride is good.



The steering is super quick, more so than anything I have ever had. It takes some getting used to.



Fatman offered three springs, light, med. and heavy. I went with the medium and the top of the fender opening was at the top of the white wall and showed 2' of rear wheel using 3' lowering blocks with Poises rear leaf springs. I only had about 4' of clearance ,frame to ground at the middle of the car. It really looked great, but was not practical for the driving that I do.



I changed the front springs to the heavy that Fatman recomended and changed the lowering blocks from 3' to 2'. The fender now sets at the top of the tire and I am showing about 3' of rear wheel. I now have 6.5' of ground clearance at the middle of the rocker panel. The car rides and drives a lot better.



I am well pleased with the Fatman clip and I hope this gives a little insight into the Fatman clip.



Barry

I have a Fatman clip in my 46 coupe and will be installing the air bags soon. I found a good forum at Web Rodder that shows the Fatman install on a 51 Hudson very informative it is under suspension page 8. Mine went well but for those thinking of using there product this will give some good tips.

Sonny

[Deleted User]

46 coupe MT wrote:

I have a Fatman clip in my 46 coupe and will be installing the air bags soon. I found a good forum at Web Rodder that shows the Fatman install on a 51 Hudson very informative it is under suspension page 8. Mine went well but for those thinking of using there product this will give some good tips.
Sonny

Have the same article Sonny, very informative. If I hadn't had to get the donor, mine would already be installed! :-(

[Deleted User]

I still have .pdf files of these articles, if anyone needs them... (smile)

BTW Jay - Remember that other Hudson in GA that issues similiar to yours, with rusting/rot? On casual observation, it appeared to be a nice car - but a look underneath and any sane person would never have taken it on the road! Only goes to show you - you can't judge a book by its cover...

Yeah Rick, learned one on mine! Still, with today's prices, not a bad deal, not a great one either!

BigSky

Has anyone done a Fatman front end on a 37 Hudson?