[david6chevy]

I see all the time where Chevy II front ends are replaced with Mustang II front ends? One guy said he shaved 300 lbs. off the weight of his Chevy II by this change out. Well, I have three questions: 1.) Is it accurate to say that 300 lbs. will be eliminated by this conversion? 2.) At $1,500. to $2,500. a pop for the assembly plus all the work involved, what makes it worth it?Handling? Safety? Weight reduction? I do not expect my boxy Chevy II to be a canyon racer or formula one machine. I just want to drive safely up and down the cruise path and maybe do some bracket racing at the strip. Question 3.)Isn't my stock front end good enough for these applications?
Thanks!

[Deuce]

You gain disc brakes with the Pinto/Mustang II setup. You go to a rack and pinion steering set up. You can remove the shock towers ( which make servicing the engine easier ).

That said ... I do not know about the 300 pounds weight savings ...
I am not a big fan of the Mustang II front end ... for everything with 4 wheels ... like some folks.

I have driven quite a few early Chevy II's and found them to be OK ... but they are old, cheap, econobox technology when it comes to the front end.

Deuce ... Moderator

[willys36@aol.com]

I have never seen this conversion! Where have you been seeing it? I know it is popular to do a full front clip swap on these cars and thie MII is always part of the replacement clip but just to replace the front end I haven't seen it.

A warning about the Heidt's MII X-member using strut rod eliminators. If you do that, the X-member will eventually crack. It is not designed to be run w/o the strut rods and the bottom tabs of the X-member eventually fatigue and the bottom X-member falls off. Not pretty. If you use their MII subframe conversion on your ChevII, use strut rods. If you still decide to go w/o strut rods, at least beef up the bottom of the X-member with a fully welded cover plate as shown here to give yourself a fighting chance.

See this and this.