THE CALVARY ARRIVES

Greetings! 

In the spirit of the recent Thanksgiving holiday and because it's been so dang cold here, I'm feeling especially grateful for my warm home and the warm, comfortable shop in which I do my craft. I feel sympathetic for all the car guys in the Himalayas who have to modify their hot rods on the edge of a snowy cliff, or those gear heads in Darkest Africa who have to sweat it out, swatting venomous insects the size of duck eggs while they're welding on their front suspension. Yes, I have much to be grateful for.

Today, I am grateful for the arrival of several large boxes of hop-up parts from Speedway Motors. I've been ready for this shipment for some time but because of decisions on just what direction to take Gary's project car, I've postponed placing the order.

By placing an order of this size I don't pay for the shipping. The most important component is the IFS (Independent Front Suspension) "kit". Speedway puts all the components together in a kit for us so we don't have to research or remember every bolt, bracket & spring to make the conversion complete. Not just that, but some components don't go together well, and Speedway does all the foot work for us. My choices included what year and model I'm working on, whether I wanted dropped spindles or not, power or manual rack and pinion steering and that's about it. I ordered many more parts as well and my goal with this large order is to get the car back down on the ground on it's own 4 wheels. 

The first task was to read the instructions for the crossmember installation. I want you to know that I found a mistake in the text that I'll be calling their tech guys about tomorrow. 

According to the instructions I cut away the U-shaped brackets and trimmed the flat flange on the outside of the frame. Then I enlarged the holes in the new crossmember for the lower control arms bolts to pass through, since I'm using the tubular units. My choices were to use the double-throw-down tubular control arms, or to use the stock Mustang (reproduction) pieces that are stamped and look rather suburban to me.

Choosing to use the tubular control arms allows me to delete the lower support rod and bracket that is welded to the side of the control arm to provide additional strength. You can see the bracket I welded to the crossmember that provides that needed support when using the tubular kit.

Following the (flawed) instructions provided by Speedway Motors, I measured back from the hole in the very front of the frame 16" and marked my "spindle centerline". Using a hacksaw I made a noticeable groove in the top of the frame rail so the crossmember wouldn't hide the centerline mark. The crossmember needs to be lifted into place from under the frame rails to fit properly. Using a floor jack and C clamps I positioned markings I'd made on the crossmember to align, roughly, with the markings on the frame. With things clamped roughly in position, I used a rubber mallet and large screwdriver to tap the crossmember until my markings were aligned to my satisfaction. I checked to make sure that the bottom of the frame was flush with the top of the crossmember and when everything looked plumb I made a couple of tack welds, one each side.

The crossmember needs to be welded completely but I'll move about the installation welding an inch or two in one spot and then moving to another spot and welding an inch or two there, just to avoid warping the assembly. 

The next step in the process is to weld the upper spring/shock brackets and then the front of the chassis is almost ready for me to prep and paint. I'll be taking an extra step with Gary's car; his frame came from the factory with a front sway bar that I'd like to incorporate. In order to do that, I'll be assembling the front suspension and the sway bar so I can weld a bracket to each of the lower control arms that will support the ends of the sway bar. Once that's done, I can disassemble the control arms and paint them. Then the motormounts get positioned, brackets welded to the frame and the frame is ready for some color. I'm thinking red & white stripes like a barber pole, that'll wake things up under the hood. Stay tuned!

Doug