Thread: 1954 buick and 4 bar questions

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I am new at the suspension stuff so please ask me for info if I leave something out. I don't know what I dont know yet. I have a 1954 buick century, Just purchased and the motor and transmission were removed in preperation for a chevy 350 swap from the nailhead motor and whatever transmission so the drivetrain is gone but it still has the torque tube rear end.

I want to do a triangulated 4 bar set up with coilovers in the rear. and probably a fatman stub kit up front. I will probably follow through with the chevy engine set up as I have one just laying around until I can afford a better set up. I wont be drag racing or street course racing with it but I want a good solid performing street car. It will be some time before I can afford to do it all so I figure I have time to ask some questions and educate myself. so here goes.

1. I want to drop the car 2 inches from stock height. With a stock set up everyone says just get new shocks and springs. With the 4 bar set up how do I calculate the ride height for a 2 inch drop?
should I just set it up for stock height and then get lowered coilovers or is there more to it with a custom set up?

2. When I install the 4 bar for 2 inches lower will I have to notch or modify my frame or modify my interior?

3. Can I install all of this without removing the body? all the videos I see have the body off for obvious reasonsbut im not sure if I can do it if I dont have to modify my frame.

4. there are many makers of these kits out there. Is there anything I should be looking for that would be specific to my application in the buick?

5???? Anything else I have missed on the large scale? I know there will be more when I get into the install and set up that I will need to educate myself on but what else do I need to know or ask when looking for a kit.

Thank you for your help.

And if anyone knows what size rear end I would need to replace the torque tube it would be a huge help too. I want to do disk brakes all around but Im not sure where to start with rear ends. If I want to use bigger rims and tires should I go with a narrower rear end? I dont want to tub it but a little more meat on the ground couldnt hurt.

Duplicate post.

I think that if I were going to do this today, I'd buy a running Jaguar XJ6 to use as a donor car for the front and rear suspension, brakes, steering, the whole enchilada. I'd drive it to a large, first-class body shop, have 'em put it up on their rack and inspect it for collision damage. I'd also run a CARFAX on it. If the car has been hit, decline the purchase and keep looking. The worst possible scenario is to begin the project with tweaked components. There must be tens of thousands of rust-free, damage-free XJ6's out there for cheap. Under no circumstances should you tell the seller what your intentions are. He should think that you want a unit that looks good. If you find one that has been keyed down the side or has a roached interior or the paint has begun to fade, all the better because the price will be lower.

My ex-wife said I'm stingy, but I prefer the word thrifty. In that vein, I like to use parts that have been engineered by professionals and manufactured by an OEM. They're affordable, they work well and you can buy replacement parts down at the corner Autozone. So it is with an XJ6 front and rear clip, with big disc brakes on all corners and rack & pinion steering. If you had seen some of the junk installations made by "hot rod" shops that I have seen through the years, you might feel the same as I do. I won't mention any names, just suffice to say that I prefer to use factory OEM components or make them myself from scratch. I'm pretty sure Dave Severson would say the same thing and he's one guy (among many on this board) that has my respect and admiration.

One point that I want to make here. In the name of all that is holy, do not use a Chevy power steering pump just because it bolts to the front of the Chevy motor. Make brackets to mount the Jag pump that came with the Jag steering. Using a Chevy pump on another type of power steering is just about the lamest thing I have ever seen done. Keep everything together that was engineered together at the factory and you won't have to jump through hoops to get the pressure and flow to work out right. If you're incapable of fabbing up some pump brackets that will work, then you shouldn't be considering a clip swap in the first place. Use an outside caliper to figure the Jag drive ratio and duplicate it with the proper pulleys on the Chevy motor.

Each one of these you do will be entirely different, but here is my explanation of a Dakota clip swap that I wrote for the Crankshaft Coalition Wiki on another site. It may provide you with some insight into the project. The basics are the basics, no matter whose pieces you're working with.
http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/Frame_swaps

Here are some other links to look through.....
TECH.... or something like it. Jag suspension in a 57 Buick - THE H.A.M.B.
Projects 1957 Oldsmobile: Jaguar XJ6 IFS/IRS - THE H.A.M.B.
1948 Ford F1 4x2 - Jaguar front end
F100 Solid Axle to Independent Front Suspension on the Cheap!
Technical TECH...well sorta... JAG IFS into mid fifties F100 - THE H.A.M.B.

Thank you for the advise! I will look through everything.

I have a 1954 Olds. I put coil-over shocks in place of the old ones. Although it looks like plenty of room, there's little room for error: you need to know your specific 4 bar config. so your traction bars will mount on flush [bolts or welds]? (pre-1955 Chevy kits are non-existent? Have you located a 4 bar kit for your Buick?)

Other thoughts: Getting my large, original-size tires on and off under the rear fender skirts was a trial-and-error process! If you go lower, you'll have smaller tires that will fit under there?

I had a new 3.5" diameter bellytube driveshaft built [from a Silverado] for the wingcap ujoint on my original pinion yoke. Any length over what...57"? will oscillate and self-destruct at smaller diameters!

My smallblock 350 fit in the front ALMOST like it was supposed to be there - with new engine mounts on the frame I made it fit the mount kit parts for a 350 block. I used big mounting pads bolted onto 1/2" steel 90-degree brackets. I installed my frame mounts almost exactly where the old ones went for the 324 c.i. engine. Beforehand, I checked the transmission-to-rear pinion yoke angles to determine the correct height for the engine mounts (parallel ujoint deflection~ identical angles).

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