47-55.1 What’s your pick for IFS and why?

[Chris04]

Decided that I will be keeping my stock frame on my 49 and going with a IFS. What are you guys using and how do you like it? I’m looking at heidts, fatman (very close to me), Scott’s, and cpp. I’ve used cpp on my 67-72 trucks and never had an issue and seems like quality. I like that they have a complete kit including rear setup and brake booster mount for frame. Looks like a nice kit and I’m honestly leaning towards it for now! But I want to hear from you guys who have used these different brand kits and how you like them! Not really on a budget just want nice quality parts! Thanks guys!

Chris Richardson

[mongocanfly]

I've got a flatout vett setup for mine ...not on the road yet, but is a quality piece

[Dan in Pasadena]

Mine's a '55.2 but I have the Flat Out Engineering setup too.

I WAS going to use a Fatman Fabrications IFS kit I bought and still have. The installer recommended I go with the Flat Out. He said he installs IFS every week and had never had a complaint about their stuff. He has had complaints about keeping MII IFS based systems aligned long term.

[Chris04]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Mine's a '55.2 but I have the Flat Out Engineering setup too.

I WAS going to use a Fatman Fabrications IFS kit I bought and still have. The installer recommended I go with the Flat Out. He said he installs IFS every week and had never had a complaint about their stuff. He has had complaints about keeping MII IFS based systems aligned long term.

That’s good info on alignment, how do your like your current setup? Thanks

[paintman]

I know alot of guys on the forum have used a Scott's IFS as have I on my 46, but I am going to go against the grain and say I would never do another one.

Mainly because it took me 4 months to get the kit sorted out because nothing fit properly when I got it. I think I spent nearly $330 shipping sway bars and coild springs back and forth until they sent me the right stuff. Not to mention the first cross member wouldn't let me bolt in the coil springs.. Although Justin was great sorting things out for me (he even called me Christmas day), theres know way i should have went through what I did after spending nearly 3K. If I remember correctly he finaly admitted they don't do a complete mock up of the kit before they send it out. They just determine what track width you need and throw a bunch of stuff in a box and hope it fits.

The main reason I wouldn't use Scott'ss is because of the way you have to monkey around with their spacers to align the front end. It's nothing but one big hassle. The only way to make an adjustment is to disassemble everything. Then remove the control arms to move the spacers around. I guess the upside is once you have everything aligned it will never move. To me it just seems like a half assed way to do it.

I am now starting a 46 Dodge pickup and I am leaning towards a Fatman or Flat Out kit.

[Chris04]

Originally Posted by paintman

I know alot of guys on the forum have used a Scott's IFS as have I on my 46, but I am going to go against the grain and say I would never do another one.

Mainly because it took me 4 months to get the kit sorted out because nothing fit properly when I got it. I think I spent nearly $330 shipping sway bars and coild springs back and forth until they sent me the right stuff. Not to mention the first cross member wouldn't let me bolt in the coil springs.. Although Justin was great sorting things out for me (he even called me Christmas day), theres know way i should have went through what I did after spending nearly 3K. If I remember correctly he finaly admitted they don't do a complete mock up of the kit before they send it out. They just determine what track width you need and throw a bunch of stuff in a box and hope it fits.

The main reason I wouldn't use Scott'ss is because of the way you have to monkey around with their spacers to align the front end. It's nothing but one big hassle. The only way to make an adjustment is to disassemble everything. Then remove the control arms to move the spacers around. I guess the upside is once you have everything aligned it will never move. To me it just seems like a half assed way to do it.

I am now starting a 46 Dodge pickup and I am leaning towards a Fatman or Flat Out kit.

Wow....yea definitely not looking to spend 3k or more on a kit that I have to guess on what may fit and not. If I spend that kind of money I would hope they have pre-fit or mocked up the kit before. Thanks for the info!

[mr48chev]

There are one or two MII kits out there that have a vetical surface to bolt the control arm to and use shims to adjust them. Those should stay in alignment. It's the ones with the stock MII T bolt setup that have issues. They didn't stay in alignment well on the cars they came on. Pain in the tailfeathers to move around when you can't get the standard Pinto/MII alignment adjustment bar down there on a lot of installs too.
Scott's setup while being stout is just flat too complicated for most guys to deal with and I'd think a pain to align from what I can figure. You have to take it apart to make adjustments from what I see. Gius who get them dialed in love them though.

I wanted one of the Industrial Chassis Dakota crossmembers but he quit making anything to sell online. Seriously stout, easy to align and used inexpensive Dakota pieces. No go there but I still have all the Dakota pieces I took off a donor.

I have a Jag XJ6 crossmember that I plan to put under my 48. The buy in isn't too spendy, usually under 400 for the complete hub to hub crossmember as it unbolts out from under the jag as a unit. Mine came real cheap as I got it from a guy who had someone install it who botched the job up and he cut it out and sold it to me for 50.00 Took a 200 mile one way drive to get it though. I figure that by the time I get the sway bar and springs and rebuild kit I'll have 500 in it. The only issue I see is steering clearance with some engines. I may have pan clearance problems with my 292 over the rack but can raise the engine a bit if needed.

I like the flathout setup and almost bought both front and rear suspension for mine years ago but got too short on cash to be able to buy it.

[dsraven]

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1303...ension-system/

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Chris04

That’s good info on alignment, how do your like your current setup? Thanks

I like it a lot.

[paintman]

Originally Posted by dsraven

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1303...ension-system/

That's an interesting link to a Scott's front end.
Heres what you might really get............... Or should I say what I got.
First attempt at building me an IFS for a 46 Chevy. You can see my coils would hit the cross member before I could get the bolt through. You would have thought they would have mocked up the front end before shipping it to me.

There fix (they thought) was to cut the top towers off and send me new longer ones to stand the shock/coil up straighter.

That seemed like a good idea until you bolt the upper control arm on and have no room for it to travel up and down.

Then when you get all that straightened out you go and try to bolt the sway bar onand you get................

[Chris04]

That’s not good at all! I was hoping someone would chime in on a cpp kit. I really like the looks of it! I couldn’t find any info on them or reviews. I’ve got a guy here local who has used heidt and said he loves it.

[jwhotrod]

I have installed 6 Fatman mustang II frontends in streetrods and love them. But I have had Brent set them up to shim like a gm frontend and they work great. However I wanted something in this 55 I am building and I went to Flatout Engineering's corvette stuff and love that as well. It is interesting as Brent at Fatmans is a very good friend of mine, last spring I was talking to him in Knoxville and as it turns out he did a lot of the preliminary engineering in Flatouts stuff and gave it to Don McNeil. Anyway Flatouts stuff is firstrate and well engineered and very precisely constructed.

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by paintman

I know alot of guys on the forum have used a Scott's IFS as have I on my 46, but I am going to go against the grain and say I would never do another one.

Mainly because it took me 4 months to get the kit sorted out because nothing fit properly when I got it. I think I spent nearly $330 shipping sway bars and coild springs back and forth until they sent me the right stuff. Not to mention the first cross member wouldn't let me bolt in the coil springs.. Although Justin was great sorting things out for me (he even called me Christmas day), theres know way i should have went through what I did after spending nearly 3K. If I remember correctly he finaly admitted they don't do a complete mock up of the kit before they send it out. They just determine what track width you need and throw a bunch of stuff in a box and hope it fits.

The main reason I wouldn't use Scott'ss is because of the way you have to monkey around with their spacers to align the front end. It's nothing but one big hassle. The only way to make an adjustment is to disassemble everything. Then remove the control arms to move the spacers around. I guess the upside is once you have everything aligned it will never move. To me it just seems like a half assed way to do it.

I am now starting a 46 Dodge pickup and I am leaning towards a Fatman or Flat Out kit.

Well, don't get me started!

[paintman]

Originally Posted by solidaxel

Well, don't get me started!

Do tell. Do tell!

[solidaxel]

So far I just finished a 10,000-mile service and the hard parts from Scott's are still on the truck, nothing has broken or fallen off, but the first 1,000 miles was a little scary!
We found all of the incorrect measurements and paid to have them corrected

It is kinda like having a root canal after the pain goes away you try and forget the PAIN!

On another note have you looked into Industrial Chassis Inc.
I have one of his front X-members on my 53 and I like the way it rides and drives

[paintman]

How many times did you have to take the spindles on and off ot get the correct alignment with all those spacers?

I don't think Industrial Chassis is doing front ends anymore over the net. I spoke with them awhile ago about my project and told me their cross member was to wide for my 46 dodge.