The rear springs on my old Ford were shot. They were soft and the ends had rusted to a razor thin edge. The packs were coming apart too. A previous owner dropped the back end with some 4" blocks. This combined with the sorry old springs lead to a lot of bottoming out, axle wrap, and a bouncy ride. 

The updated steering linkage kit for '49 - '51 shoeboxes is designed to address the issues built into the original setup.  Ford's original coupled a bad inner tie rod position with a weak idler arm assembly. Replacing all the stock components was barely more affordable than this kit. Because this tired old Ford needs all the help it can get, the upgrade kit was ordered.

A popular upgrade for the 49-51 Fords is to pull out the old factory front springs and throw some Ford Aerostar van springs under the front.I thought I'd do a write up on the Aerostar coil swap, PN Moog CC850, under the front end of my Ford. 

This is something that has been covered at length on a number of forums online, but I didn't see a step-by-step with pics, so I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring.

I tried to do the Aerostar front spring conversion but I failed. I did get my new shocks installed and a new brake line for the rear axle. Here's how I did it.