Thread: vintage IFS

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Any body on the board know anything about the Fatman fabricators vintage IFS center swing front suspension? I'm looking to put a modified version under a 31 Ford roadster pick up, 'cause I like the look, and the track nose will hide all the coil overs and linkage, for a very clean look.
There have been 2 articles in Streetrodder magazine, over the last 2 years, both promised a follow up story/track test, that never materializrd,
I want to talk to someone who has actually built/driven one, and Fatman has given me no referrals. It's beginning to sound to me like paid advertisement from fatman, with no product results, or satisfied customers to back it up! TIA ,RED caddy

The folks who I have discussed the design with agree that, with the short length created (half an axle length), the camber change thru the suspension travel gets a tad bit much. For instance, if the arm length created were 23 inches and the suspension travel is 5 inches, the camber range would be over 12 degrees.

There is/are folks who have tried to minimize this by making the length of the arm longer ala Ford Twin I Beam axles.....they dont look too good on a fenderless car.

The vendor should be able to supply a reference if they sold any of the product....oops....a "good" reference. Good is the key word in that sentence. Ask around, there should be someone out there who installed one.

I looked at that briefly myself. The key word is briefly. I didn't like the heavy camber change either. Worse than that, you can get that camber change at either of the front wheels, or both at the same time.

Other than the sales jobs in the magazines, I've never seen one installed.

This is a terrible resign, look at TCI.........Don

Cad Allards had that type of suspension in the early 50s. It did not catch on then and it does not seem to be catching on now.

It doesn't work on paper, no reason to waste the money to see how poor it works on a car. JMO