Does anyone know of a kit or a way to replace the King Pin suspension on a 55 with control arms and spindles without doing major frame modifications.

 

Try Kantor auto products. They should have everything you need.

 

Kanter sells stock replacement parts. The OP is asking about changing the original suspension to a later model ball joint style suspension.

 

I miss read his question, sorry.

 

 

What is wrong with the original suspension?

 

Thanks for your reply, I am still doing research having been in the body repair business and related fields for 50 plus years. I am going to see if I can use components from other vehicles to solve the issue. I just don't like the King pin setup. the 55 I just bought was at one time a high end custom car that the last owner left out to the elements and I want to restore and upgrade it. The main reason for the car is that my dad worked for Olds in that era and I was trained by Fisher Body Division in 1965 so I want to do the 55 as a keeper. I will start on the 55 as soon as I finish the 1930 Model A Sport Coupe I'm currently working on.

 

Oldsmobile changed from king pins to ball joints in 1957.

 

Olds really drug their feet going to ball joint suspension. Short of clipping the front end, I don't know what else you would do. For normal driving, the old king pin front end does okay. I think the 55 has tube shocks. My 54 still has the old knee action shocks.

 

I am going to pull it down and see if I can design what I need, my son in law is an engineer and I have a brother who is a machinist and my baby brother is a welder who works in a fab shop and they build some hot rod parts. I am looking at using S10 spindles and designing from there. Planning on using 2014 Camaro steel wheels. I will keep the thread going on my progress if I can come up with something.

 

I stumbled across this, pretty good read:
http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/w...ension_upgrade

 

Awesome article, Thanks for the help!

 

I saw a set of 58 Pontiac A-arms on CL. Don't remember what city though. I use a search engine to access all of CL. I heard these are the ones to use other than doing a clip on the frame.

 

I talked to a friend today and he told me that he had rebuilt the front end on the Olds that I just purchased. He said that it was about 3 years ago and I know that the car was driven very little in the last 2 years so I am going to wait on the susp upgrade. I am just upgrading the braking system to power booster and disc brakes.