Fat Man front ends

54coupe
54coupe Member
in Street Rods
 I want to start this post out by saying that I'm not looking for a debate here....

I spoke with someone somewhat local to me yesterday, who also posts here. He has been considering going to a Fat man front end for quite a while. He ultimately made the decision to pull the trigger, and made the call. He was told that Brent, (the owner) had retired, and they were not going to make them for Hudsons any more. I'm sure there have been a couple of guys who have gotten these in the last six months or so, so this was quite a surprise to both of us.

I changed my front crossmember over to a Jaguar unit, so i could have power rack and pinion steering, and big disc brakes to safely stop my 54, which will be driven daily with a lot more power than Hudson ever dreamed of. Has anyone here ever done an aftermarket swap of just a crossmember (NOT THE WHOLE FRONT SUBFRAME)? If so, who's did you use? I'm looking into this, with the intent of doing a stepdown, and keeping the modified 308, so I don't need to make motor mounts if all we change is the crossmember.

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  • scar426
    scar426 Member
    While not a stepdown ('47 Bus Cpe) I fabricated a separate crossmember for a rack and pinion unit and left the rest of the suspension in place. I did open up the bottom A-Arm to mount a plate for my air-ride shockwave, but otherwise stock.  Works fine although I would like to have a drop spindle to lower the ride height and still maintain good geometry, but have not found a spindle set up that would work with the kingpin setup.
  • 50C8DAN
    50C8DAN Senior Contributor
    Charlie Harris has done at least 2 rack and pinion installs, one is a '46/'47 PU and a '52H8.  Personally I am not a fan of the mustangII front ends, as it is older tech for a designed for a much smaller vehicle than a Hudson.  I have put C4 front (and rear) suspension in my '58 Studebaker pickup.  You can contact these guys to help you get what you need, besides getting a C4 suspension from a junk yard.

    https://flatout-engineering.com

    Or 

    https://www.progressiveautomotive.com

    I went with Progressive but I might go with Flatout if I do another one.

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