Ford guys got us

[Camtron]

Ford guys have been using our cars since the ‘80s to get suspension upgrades on the front of their old trucks.


“ For our F-100s, the Volare or Cordoba torsion bar front suspensions were being installed as fast as they could drop them out of the donor cars. There are a couple of reasons these suspensions got popular. Both are "unitized." All the parts attach to a crossmember that can be dropped out of the donor car and installed into a project vehicle. The front wheel center to center is 60 inches (track width), just a little bit narrower than the stock 61 inches. The frontends were cheap, normal prices for those years were in the $150 range for the complete unit. The Volare is just one of Chrysler/Plymouth's available donors. The Aspens, Diplomats, Lebarons, Town and Countrys, New Yorkers, and the Fifth Avenues all shared the basic same front suspension. Then there are the Cordobas and its clones. “

Link here: https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/installing-fatman-fabrications-volare-drop-spindles/

 

[Mikes5thAve]

It used to be common but for the past decade or so they've been using Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/Town Car parts that gets them coil suspension, better brakes and rack and pinion steering in a lighter aluminum sub frame.

 

[Camtron]

It used to be common but for the past decade or so they've been using Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/Town Car parts that gets them coil suspension, better brakes and rack and pinion steering in a lighter aluminum sub frame.

20+ years of a group that size buying these cars up is plenty of time to do damage to the number of these cars available.
At least they stopped junking our cars for their own a decade ago though.
I’ve seen plenty of F/M/Js missing their front ends, left to rot in fields on FB market place, makes me wonder how many of them got scraped to build a F100, ect.

 

[AMC Diplomat]

It used to be common but for the past decade or so they've been using Crown Vic/Grand Marquis/Town Car parts that gets them coil suspension, better brakes and rack and pinion steering in a lighter aluminum sub frame.

That 2003+ panther platform has a lot going for it. People love that front subframe for hot rodding

 

[Mikes5thAve]

20+ years of a group that size buying these cars up is plenty of time to do damage to the number of these cars available.
At least they stopped junking our cars for their own a decade ago though.
I’ve seen plenty of F/M/Js missing their front ends, left to rot in fields on FB market place, makes me wonder how many of them got scraped to build a F100, ect.

It would be interesting to know the numbers. We used to speculate that it probably isn't all that high because you rarely saw trucks that actually had them.

The K frames used to also commonly be pulled to replace ones that were cracked or had worn out torsion bars, wanting a V8 in place of /6.. and I'm sure while there were issues with it there were probably also a lot of cases where it was mis-diagnised by someone who didn't know how to work on it properly.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

That 2003+ panther platform has a lot going for it. People love that front subframe for hot rodding

I got into those cars once you couldn't easily get decent M bodies here anymore. Now the Fords are disappearing.

 

[Camtron]

It would be interesting to know the numbers. We used to speculate that it probably isn't all that high because you rarely saw trucks that actually had them.

The K frames used to also commonly be pulled to replace ones that were cracked or had worn out torsion bars, wanting a V8 in place of /6.. and I'm sure while there were issues with it there were probably also a lot of cases where it was mis-diagnised by someone who didn't know how to work on it properly.

Definitely seems like it’s lost popularity since 2013-2014 but, if you get on the Ford truck forums, plenty of guys have done it. More than what we have active here. Can only wonder.

 

[Camtron]

Heck popular enough that in, 2014 Motor trend put out an article/ad for Volare drop spindles, for Ford truck owners that have our K members swapped into them…they don’t even make part articles/ads for our cars directly, Just the “forgotten/lost Mopar” articles, lol

 

[AMC Diplomat]

I got into those cars once you couldn't easily get decent M bodies here anymore. Now the Fords are disappearing.

I'm a big fan but I sold my last one and got into Mopars because of the can-bus nightmare. Sourcing old and rebuilt modules is a pain in the ass and it's only gonna get worse. I'd rather have a mopar.

 

[XfbodyX]

Yea, but at least they have money to spend and will spend it. When I had my three sets of nos torsion bar assemblies listed ironically all three ads were answered by the ford guys who had F front ends and they bought them and I was asking less then when they were new from mopar.

 

[Camtron]

Yea, but at least they have money to spend and will spend it. When I had my three sets of nos torsion bar assemblies listed ironically all three ads were answered by the ford guys who had F front ends and they bought them and I was asking less then when they were new from mopar.

I’m not the least bit surprised. It’s no secret that few people are spending real money on this platform. Hats off to the guys that do but, if there was enough of us doing it, we’d have part support we all wish we had. Now there’s not even enough of our platform left, let alone people who want to sink real money into their cars for companies to continue to manufacture parts for us.

Oh well.

Edit; maybe the Ford guys will end up being the saving grace for our suspension part support, lol

 

[Mikes5thAve]

Heck popular enough that in, 2014 Motor trend put out an article/ad for Volare drop spindles, for Ford truck owners that have our K members swapped into them…they don’t even make part articles/ads for our cars directly, Just the “forgotten/lost Mopar” articles, lol

And oddly enough years after it was more heard of. I'm more surprised someone made the spindles then an article about it.

 

[Camtron]

And oddly enough years after it was more heard of. I'm more surprised someone made the spindles than an article about it.

…that’s just how popular it is/was.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

I'm a big fan but I sold my last one and got into Mopars because of the can-bus nightmare. Sourcing old and rebuilt modules is a pain in the ass and it's only gonna get worse. I'd rather have a mopar.

It's far worse on the newer mopars. At least with the Fords it's a part failure and usually dash related. With newer cars everything is programmed right down to the window and lock switches.

 

[Camtron]

…at least we know that once MagnumForce stops making a tubular kit specifically for our cars, we can make early F100 tubular kits fit with some modification.

 

[Sub03]

Yepp, apparently our front ends is popular in the hot rod communities.
I noticed this a couple of years ago when I rebuilt mine.
Almost every search I did on the web came back with results from The H.A.M.B. the forum on jalopyjournal.

Search Results for Query: volare | The H.A.M.B.

 

[AMC Diplomat]

It's far worse on the newer mopars. At least with the Fords it's a part failure and usually dash related. With newer cars everything is programmed right down to the window and lock switches.

The big problem I have with them is when there's a pcm failure, you have to get a used pcm reprogrammed so the VIN will match so you can pass inspection in NY, and that means reprogramming the PATS too. I'd rather have an old car

 

[toolmanmike]

Twin I beam!

 

[Ele115]

New Yaawk and California. They have six laws for everything you want to do

 

[Oldiron440]

The mopar front crossmember in a truck was an 80s/90s thing, maybe even a 70s/80s thing it’s been over for a long time.