I have the 1"" aftermarket sway bar from TBird Southwest on the front of my 57 Sunliner and their rear 1" sway bar (as yet uninstalled..) as well. The way the front aftermarket bar mounts appears to leave the working space for the original anti-sway bar completely unimpeded, I just noticed.
The aftermarket bar goes on top of the lower A frames. Since the factory bar goes under the lower A frames and the aftermarket bar does not look like it would interfere with the factory bar, does it make sense to use them both? Or is that overkill?
The motor is a 351C, which is probably around 520 lbs with aluminum intake and water pump. The Y block was about 620 lbs. So I have dropped about 100 lbs off the front. I also had removed one coil from each front spring years ago as I didn't want it to sit too high. A different 57 convertible I had years ago sat too high with a Y block, but I thought had sat about right with a 430 Merc engine in it later without doing any suspension changes.
The spindles and front disk brakes are 1971 Lincoln Mark 3 which I also just now noticed appear to create a drop of at least an inch and a half as well. Didn't see that when I was assembling the front suspension. Maybe I will have to put a pair of full length springs back in... Will have to see about the height once the motor/transmission and front clip are back on. Don't want it too low either, but I have lots of springs around here.
Have not yet mounted the rear sway bar because I re-removed the rear axle and springs to do some metalwork on the inner wheel wells and to paint and undercoat the bottom of the car. Huge, filthy job and I forgot all about that front factory bar in the process of trying to get to where I can mount the rear aftermarket sway bar. Another week probably and the entire underside should be done and I can put the axle back in and mount the rear sway bar.
Anyone out there using the beefy TBird Southwest sway bars, and are you also using the factory anti-roll bar as well? Not sure where my factory bar went, but it is around here somewhere and new rubber bushings for it are also on hand with lots of other parts accumulated over the years.
The front bar question is a good one. When I rebuilt the front end and added the Southwest bar I never thought about installing the original. The car handles really well, I also have the rear bar. I don't know what effect putting the original back on would have. Maybe you can do a test for us.
I'm pretty much with Jim on this one. I have the front sway bar from t-birdsw, which should be 1 1/8 btw,and I think having two would be overkill, but I've never heard of anyone doing it, so a guinea pig would be good, lol.
Depending on what type of driving you do, most guys have not felt a need for the rear sway bar the cars handle so well with just the front, but not many have talked about it for a convert, so the weight difference may change that.
I have a Custom and had a Ranch Wagon, both with ADDCO front sway bars with poly bushings. The ADDCO bar replaces the OEM bar. Doubling the front sway bar would put a lot of stress on the OEM stamped steel lower control arms. If one was in some kind of competition (auto cross, road racing), the control arms need to be changed to tubular with the addition of poly bushing and some other kind of steering. The Custom is air bagged and rack & pinion with 460 for fun street driving. It is not an auto cross car but corners very well on the street. Triangular 4-link rear with no rear bar. The Ranch Wagon has OEM power steering, Granada spindles and the ADDCO front bar really helped the car around street corners. With 550 HP, the OEM rear springs needed help so I made a set of Traction Masters knock offs. They stiffened and settled the rear end. I installed a ADDCO police Crown Vic rear bar. Even though it being a station wagon, it handled street corners and interstate curves great. NOW the down side. On certain dippy, rolling county roads, the rear was stiff enough to push the front a little. It was not enough to make me unhook the rear bar but it was noticeable. The Raunch Wagon is gone so I won't be doing any more experimenting with it. But I will NOT be adding a rear bar to the Custom.
Forgot that I also have a set of the original tractionmaster bars that I bought off ebay years ago. I like your front brackets better though cuz it supports both sides and I am not all that sure about vertical welds on the frame being that great an idea.
The rear leafs I have are just the ones off the parts cop car which have been refurbished. Convertible springs were broken and rusty, but they appeared otherwise the same. Maybe I should have put retractable or Ranchero/wagon leafs on, but I will try this first, along with the rear sway bar, the traction bars and see...
My recollections of my first 57 convertible handling with 430 Merc engine (around 1970) are that it leaned a lot in corners. Probably mostly due to worn out shocks and the original Y block front springs, but anyway a lot of the stuff I picked up for this car were to address the perceived shortcomings of that first 57.
There is such a thing as too stiff too. I have a 94 Trans Am and a 2004 Mustang that both have wide tires, stiff suspensions and both elicit an annoying "thump" on every little crack in the asphalt. Probably won't notice that as much in a noisy convertible though and the tires won't be as wide as on those cars.
I received my new original style rear parking brakes lines and a new set of retractable/wagon 15/16" rear wheel cylinders from Mac's. Installation to wait until the axle is back in.
Decided to try a 1 1/8" combo aftermarket master cylinder from CJ Pony parts with an attached proportioning and built-in bias valve mounted below the mc. The original Lincoln master that came with my disk brakes was only 1", but I am more worried about the available pedal travel on the Swift Sure than the pedal being a little stiffer than I would prefer. If it doesn't work out I can probably use it on a 61 Sunliner project languishing in the pole building which have larger boosters.
I have the 1 1/8" Southwest T-bird front bar without the original front bar with Aerostar springs that have a 50% higher spring rate than stock (more or less). I am very dubious of the original front bar design. I have the 6 leaf springs in the back with the original Traction Masters, 1" lowering blocks and air shocks that are seldom inflated, no rear bar. Typically increasing roll stiffness on the front will increase understeer, increasing roll stiffness in the rear will increase oversteer. Rear bars are usually not very effective on leaf spring cars. I think the traction bars are actually increasing the rear roll stiffness as they seem to bind a little, I am guessing. My car set up like it is feels like it wants to oversteer on sweeping turns but I have never pushed it in turns.
I went with the rear bar because I felt the Ranchero is heavier in the rear compared to a Custom. I don't know if my thinking is correct or not but I have no under or over steer, it's quite neutral and push the hell out of it in the corners :burnout:
I always thought it would be lighter... no idea. I might try a rear bar one day.
I think the convertible is probably a couple hundred pounds heavier stock than both your cars, though my replacement engine is lighter than stock by 100 lbs.
Have heard that traction bars do bind a bit, but with only four leafs in rear springs I suspect my springs may need the aid of traction bars too. Need to wait to weld the frame bracket on til car is back on its wheels at ride height though, I presume.
Used up the day scraping off remaining factory undercoating under rear of car, vacuuming gravel and sand from rear frame rails, grinding welds and making a couple new tailpipe hanger frame brackets. One was buried in gobs of weld that took a lot of grinding to get off, It apparently had broken in the past. The other side only had a little piece of the hanger bracket still there, but at least the bolt threaded out like normal.
Every time I think I am getting close with this messy underside work, I find another issue that needs to be addressed. The frame bracket that holds the right side axle snubber is also hammered and bowed upward, probably cuz of previous broken springs on that side.
The quality of the factory frame rail horizontal welds is actually atrocious, but no cracks or separating anywhere. Touched up the worst few of them, but I have heard of even frames welded to a frame table still warping with a whole lot of additional welding. So, I am reluctant to weld too much on it. Also had a broken off shock mount ear on the passenger side and welded one on from a parts car. Re-welded the leftside shock mount on the crossbar as well, cuz I seem to recall this being a common problem.
Oh well, enough for today. Back at it tomorrow...