As we’ve all seen in print and even online, lowering the front of early Chevy passenger cars (’37-54) can be as easy as unbolting the old and bolting in the new. And with the aid of additional modern technology, the frontal ride height can be drastically reduced. However, to do so on the opposite end with an equal drop takes a little more effort than simply busting out your basic hand tools; bolt-on leaf kits are limited to the space between the bottom of the top-hat framerail and the rearend axle tube.
But even with a decent C-notch, leaf-spring-based rear suspensions have their pre-determined limits, thus adding a similar type of adjustable component as the frontend (i.e. airbags) ultimately defeats the inherent function of the leaf to begin with. For many, including myself once or twice in the past, the solution was to remove individual leaves from the spring pack. With a dual-convoluted air spring, which acts as a coil, it’s not so badbut when using a sleeve-type ’bag, that’s where the mechanical issues can arise. Leaf springs were not designed to act as adjustable locators for your car’s rearend.
Having already been equipped with a Heidts frontend (currently outfitted with coilovers, which will soon make way for ShockWaves), the rear suspension on my Fleetline needed to be addressed in a major way. I won’t have a custom with its nose lower to the ground than its rear, period.
There are options, but unfortunately, they’re not as inexpensive as the aforementioned bolt-on kits, nor are they as straightforward installation wise. If your goal is to go as low (or lower) than your frontend, you’ll want to consider going with either a parallel or triangulated four-link or a truck armstyle two-link. Four-links are almost as popular as Mustang IIs these days, and because of that, there’s a good variety to choose from. (If this is the direction you decide to go, definitely go the triangulated route.) However, the two-links are gaining more and more popularity as of late, and you’re about to see why.
With a properly designed two-link (or trailing arm) setup, you have a rear suspension with no compromised componentseverything works in unison, giving you ample adjustability and potential for great ride quality. You also end up with a more user-friendly geometry of parts that offer both better ease of installation as well as room to route your forthcoming exhaust once all’s said and done. And it was partly owing to this that inspired Jimenez Bros. Customs (JBC) to come up with its own two-link kit.
The solution—Jimenez Bros. Customs’ (JBC) new adjustable two-link kit, complete with RideTech airbags, on a Moser Engineering Muscle Pak 12-bolt rearend with two-piece driveshaft from Inland Empire Driveline. Form (lowness) and function all in one.
The setup JBC offers has plenty of flexibility fitment wise, so its application goes well beyond the ’37-54 Chevy you’re about to see it installed on (at the time this was done, they were also fitting one to a ’50 Mercwhich didn’t need the step notch due to its high arcing rear ’rails). JBC’s two-link consists of square-tube trailing arms with bolt-on/adjustable rearend mount, adjustable forward-link mount crossmember, four-piece step notch kit, tubular upper shock mount, shocks, Panhard bar, and airbags (which we sourced from RideTech along with a two-way RidePro setup).
Before we could incorporate everything, we needed to do something about the rearend. This is also something many of you will be faced with, especially those of you still running the stock closed driveline. Because we wanted to go the Chevy route rather than the usual Ford 9-inch, we went to Moser Engineering and asked them what they recommended. As it turned out, they suggested a little of both12-bolt housing with 9-inch-style flanges and 30-spline axleswith one of their Muscle Pak complete rearend kits. And by kit, they mean drum-to-drum, chrome differential cover to pinion yoke, and even e-brake cables and hardware.
JBC’s two-link comes compete with square-tube trailing arms with a bolt-on/adjustable rearend mount, adjustable forward-link mount crossmember, four-piece stepnotch kit, tubular upper shock mount, shocks, Panhard bar, and airbags (from RideTech along with a two-way RidePro setup).
Once the new rearend arrived from Indiana, JBC had their first prototype two-link ready to installthat is, once the ’47 Fleetline body had been removed from the chassis and all the factory obtrusions rid of.
