i am an avid 60's-70's mopar fan and regular around here,but i have recently got the bug to build myself a ratrod,so,i just picked up a sweet 99% rust-free 41 plymouth 2-door sedan out of kansas, and i am about to tear into it.i have a mild 67 383 and 727 i want to put in it, i have already accquired a fresh built 8.8 fox-body mustang rear end (fresh trac-loc,yukon 5-lug hardened axles,all new brakes,bearings,3.08 gears)that i plan on mounting via s-10 leaf springs,so now comes to the front. i was talking with an old fellow near me that suggested that i could use an 86 dodge diplomat front suspension/K-frame. i have never looked these cars over at all,but i noticed on the one he has, has the torsion bars running across the front of the K-frame,and the entire suspension,including the upper control arms, is all self contained on the K-frame itself. and it measures 62 inches across the front tires just like my 41's stock measurement.
have any of you guys here ever used one of these set-ups? any ideas about it? looks like an easy fit to me.............???

when you say "RATROD" do you mean just slapped together with stuff you have laying around or a finished rod just not painted? the term ratrod can mean many things.

I had a volare' unit with the transverse torsion bars on my humpback panel truck way back in 1978?? and that truck rode fantastic, they are a little big in the front area and it might take a little work to hide the torsion bars from the front. it might be easier on a 41 than it was on my 36.

and now that those frontends are over 30 years old I don't know how hard getting replacement parts would be.

again it depends on what you plan to do with the car, personally I would NOT build that year car fenderless if that is your plan. if the car is complete I would build a nice streetrod out of it, you can run it around in primer if that is what you like...

getting back to the front end I believe that your 41 has an independent frontend and you almost have to cut the whole frontend off and replace it with like 2x4 rectangular tubbing to mount the diplomat frontend as well as putting a mustang II style frontend on that car. some people like the stock frontends with upgraded parts, I like to change them over to something newer but thats just my liking.

dont let me scare you away from the diplomat frontend just check out all your options befor you decide what to do.

and you got any pics of the car, post them... Ron...




here are a couple, does yours look like these???

this one is more of the unfinished look:




I like the looks of this one:

I think I'm going to use part of or a whole early Dodge Dakota chassis under my '40 Dodge. They are popular Mopar 5 lug, disc brakes, etc, etc.

When I measured the 40 Dodge frame, Ron was able to give me the measurements for the Dakota, it was a match made in heaven!
(Thanks again Ron! )

Another member grafted it to a '39 Plymouth frame.

Check out this:
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...e=1#Post5011149

I still haven't done anything to it yet, still a few projects behind....

I put the Aspen type front end in my '56 and it was a snap to install , and handles great...Mine came out of a 1986 Chrysler 5 th ave ..any parts are still easy to come by and I really like the finished product ..

I used a 89 dakota front suspension in my 49 dodge. Others have done it like this, cut the front of the frame off, and cut down the inside, and 'slid' the dakota frame in. Goes in around 30", last bit had to be pulled in by a come-a-long. Then welded up. Went pretty easy. Heres a pic of the dakota frame, its cut right behind the cab. Second pic is frames together, but not welded.

2nd pic

Having done (or almost finished) both the 5th Ave clip and a Dakota clip, the Dakota wins hands down.

You will need to cut the frame off your car to do either, the 5th Ave was last produced in 89 and there is very little support for that suspension. A Dakota was first produced in 87 and is still in production (though I'm don't know if any of the componets on the new trucks fit the older chassis). Do you want old tech or more modern tech, and think about what parts availability will be in 10 years. Gene

parts availabilty on the transverse torsion bar suspension is fine, in fact, firm feel is going to be making upgraded t-bars here sooon.

when the dakota was first being developed, they were going to use the M body front suspension. I presume they didn't because it'd be too hard to adapt to 4wd....

i believe i am going with the dakota clip,as i now have access to an 89 front clip with power R/P out of a 3.9 v6 truck. looks like it may give me more room for the 383 and the set of heddman B-body headers that i plan on running on it. the column may be the dakota one as well. i am going for the rough and rustic look. i am not going to throw together a car with duct tape and bread ties, i will build the car completely road-worthy,but,the onlt things painted on the car will be the wheels and the engine. thats it.

Having owned and driven two high mileage 85 5th Aves., I would not put that front end in a chebby! In my experience they want to wallow real bad. Maybe it is the rubber mounted rear axle or the rubber mounted crossmember but something is basically wrong. One of the magazines did a buildup on a Dippy racecar and they added another locating bar from the radiator support to the frontend maybe something like that would help.
Bryce

Reading mags like Mopar Action back in the late 80's early 90's, one thing became clear in a BIG hurry. If you wanted these cars to handle, getting rid of the rubber mounts was paramount. There was a kit available for the front that had iron pucks to replace the rubber ones for the frontend. These made a HUGE difference. Since most hotrodders would be solid mounting the frontend, this inherent problem is automatically solved.

firm feel makes 'em, (cast alum) and are ~$150, cudazappa on the dippy board makes 'em out of aluminum billet for ~$100-120

someone else on the dippy board made 'em out of steel billet at one time, too. you can get poly k frame bushings from ESPO for ~ $60.

thought i would post a pic of the car and some progress pics. i got a 90 dakota stub and have it cut a little long at the moment. i have already fitted,fabbed and welded up my motor mounts. still got to finish the trans mount,then get that stuff off and get ready to transplant in to the plymouth.

very nice,keep posting,maybe ill do a dakota stub on my 40 dodge coupe

any more progress on any of these ? im considering a dakoa stub,,

Thanks!! Those are some great pictures!

I wondered how a B/RB would fit in the Dakota stub, great reference shots!

What body style headers are those? B/E body?

Dakota motor mounts are too far back for a B/RB, but check out bigblockdakota.com, he shows an easy was to make motor mounts for a big block.

Want to sell your back wheels?

at what point did you cut the orignal frame to start sliding in the dakota ?

and did your orignal frame have the X ?? if so how far away is the dakota stub when slid in from the X??

will you reuse any of the orignal rad support frame ? thanks