Educate me on straight axle & spring set ups that can be used for an altered wheel base clone? I know the common one is the A100 set up, which has to be narrowed. Can you also use the set up off a mid 60's dodge truck? I'd prefer junkyard/ vintage parts rather than a new set up. I have Steve Magnantes book on how to build & narrow the set up, but it doesn't talkabout alternative set ups.

Thanks,
Brent

A lot of them just moved the k-frame forward.

Brent, there is absolutely no need to narrow the A-100 beam axles. Landy did it on his '64 and it was a freakin' ODDBALL. There could have been others done that way, but Landy's is the only I know about. It was a pretty uncommon setup. There was more cars with A-100 axles that simply had the springpads on the axles redrilled or offset hangers on the framerails. The procedures outlined in Magnante's book are not the only way to do it.

Remember, stock A-100 springs will not work with a 10inch front relocation unless you run without the bumper and add a little extension to the front of the framerails. The stock A-100 spring length is 1 of the reasons why Landy's 64 was only movey by the 6 or 8 inches that it was. The attached pic shows what happens when stock A-100 springs are used with 10inch relocation. The car later got a bumper but it was clearly like 2inches out from stock. Lots of cars that got axles used small trailer or junkyard springs that were much shorter that A-100s (in overall length). There was plenty of independently built cars that used early Ford style buggy springs. Also, later on some cars got radius rods with coilovers; but they were also pretty uncommon.

I attached 2 pics from the old Car Craft article on the Mr, Norm's car. Some people say this car had a narrowed axle; that is incorrect. The article even states that the front and rear axles were stock width (although you can't always trust magazine articles 100%).

How scary would this be if the axle was slotted where it was narrowed? Yikes, it is scary enough bieng sloted so heavily even without bieng narrowed.

These pics clearly show that the car had tiny little springs that were under the (standard width) 2X3 framerails and the springs are relocated inwards on the beam axle. Axle is not narrowed. Mr. Norm had this exactly the same setup under atleast 1 other car; a red sedan. Maybe even 2 different sedans.

second pic

While I'm at it; I have no idea about the actual measurements off other Dodge trucks, but I would speculate that they are quite a bit wider/heavier than the A-100 axles. They'd probably stick the tires/wheels clean outside the fenders?