Spindles and Attitude..

I found a bunch of boxes at my doorstep on Friday.  Here's what was in them:

11" disc brake kit, with 1.5" dropped spindles.  These are modified from Ford Grenada spindles & brakes.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, disc brakes are an important safety upgrade for the car... especially during panic stops.  Drum brakes are typically more difficult to modulate during panic stops, and people who are not used to them are much more likely to lock the wheels.  I was resisting the expense of this upgrade, but Uncle Packard and Mr. Mechanic convinced me not to be a tight-wad where safety is concerned.  I bought this kit from a very cool guy in LA who has been making them for decades, and has continued even after his partner died two years ago.  I needed the kit in preparation for rebuilding the front suspension, which will happen when I get the car back from the paint shop.  That may happen within a month or so...

Besides the brakes themselves, I'll needed to upgrade the master cylinder.  This is another eBay find...

Chrome plated dual disc-drum master cylinder, with proportioning valve.  Dual systems like this isolate the front brakes from the rears... important for safety, and for accommodating the different needs of discs vs. drums.

Since disc brakes require more pedal pressure than drums, and since I want the car to be easy for friends and family to drive, I think I need to keep the power brakes.  I've decided to use the original power brake servo on the front discs only.  I don't have room under the hood for another servo for the rears, but there will be plenty of power for the rear drums without the servo, and the proportioning valve will balance out the brakes nicely.  Lots of baby birds run this setup, and it seems very effective.  Mr. Brakes (the guy who did my steering box) is rebuilding the power servo now.

I got the dropped spindles because I think the front of the stock t-bird sits a little high.  I occasionally see restored of baby birds going down the road with the nose up in the air... maybe it's because of sagging rear springs, or maybe the passengers are a little heavy... but it isn't very attractive.  Even in stock trim, the front seems to ride a little high for my taste.  What do you think?  Here are a pair of red 1955 T-birds, one stock and one lowered.

Box stock, the front end sits a little higher than the rear.  I think this is consistent with the early '50's vision of "speed", kind of like the car is leaning forward.

I really like this shot - lowered with skirts.  Note how the body line is more level, and the car seems more balanced.
This is the look I'm going for... stylish, elegant, but with attitude!  A black air dam under the bumper might look good...

In 1955, the stock T-bird's 5.5" of ground clearance was considered very low.  Roads could get pretty rough, and the owner's manual had several cautions about the low ground clearance.  Today, however, roads are much better.  Both my dearly departed 1987 Formula Firebird, and my current 2004 GTO were built with 4.5" of ground clearance, and my 1978 MG Midget had considerably less than 4".  I only got in trouble a couple of times, once breaking an exhaust flange over a speed bump in the MG, and another time getting the Firebird stuck in the sand on a desert road where I had no business driving.  An expensive mistake, costing me a new catalytic converter.  Outside of that, my only scrapes have been on obviously-too-high speed bumps.  I'm confident that lowering the front of the bird an inch won't have serious consequences, especially since I intend to keep it on paved roads!

Drop spindles maintain the correct steering geometry of the front end, unlike "lowering blocks" that simply let the suspension ride a little lower.  Of course, lowering the car will reduce the suspension travel a little.  To maintain good ride quality and still keep the car from bottoming out, I've decided to substitute variable rate front springs (built for a 95 Ford Aerostar).  This is an inexpensive and common swap with '50's Fords... it seems that Ford engineers have used the same front end dimensions for decades!  Even though they are a few inches shorter than the soft original fixed-rate springs, because of the variable rate they will actually raise the front back up about a half-inch or so.  I think the car should end up with about 4.5" of ground clearance, just like my GTO.

I've been thinking about these modifications for months, and it's kind of a relief to finally make a decision and get the parts.  I won't be waffling or obsessing about different alternatives any more. I have clarified a vision and set a clear direction for this car, for what I want it to be.  Each decision makes the vision more concrete, and brings it closer to reality.  Week by week I see incremental changes in the car, I see abstract concepts taking on corporeal substance in my garage, and I give thanks.  This is how transformation happens.
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I talked to a sponsee recently about setting a direction for his life.  He has kind of stalled out in his recovery, so I asked him to visualize what it would be like to live new and different way.  He knows that God doesn't usually choose to transform us in an instant, but rather as the cumulative result of our daily decisions.  The consistency of those decisions reflects our character, and our integrity.  Making those decisions in a manner consistent with who we want to be, or better yet with who God wants us to be, is what I refer to as intentionality.  I think my sponsee got it.

I rest in the hope that, over time, the parts that accumulate in my spiritual garage as a result of living with intentionality will bring me to something truly beautiful, truly unique, and that I will be blessed.