Ok...I've heard all the *****ing about mustang II kits and stuff..but to me it seems to remind me of all the SARS stuff. Major outbreak which only amounted to about .04% of the population. Same thing with failures on the Mustang II kits.

Anyway...with that out of the way. I'm planning on running shockwaves with a mustang II kit from either Heidts or Progressive. I was browsing the web and found a picture of an interesting setup that eliminates the spring hat. Of course it's from fatmans, but I could duplicate the same thing myself and make it a little more beefy. What do you all think of this setup?

It is hard to tell from the photos how thick the material is. Also there are no photos to show how the lower control arm is mounted, so can't comment on that. Don't know what frame it is mounted in either.

I will say this. I would be a little concerned on the strength of the frame. There will be considerable stress on it from the upper control arm and shock. It appears to me that the frame is going to try to twist with that kind of leverage and no apparent strengthening of that area. We used to use plates to mount the upper control arm on a race car that I worked on. The plates that we used were, I believe about 3/8" thick. They were also not expected to handle pot holes and everyday driving. We also expected them to give in a wreck(normal occurance with our driver) and checked them weekly. They also didn't have the spring weight on them.

Just my opinion.

Bigchevyman, I saw a nice setup from Scottshotrods.com at the PA show. The website shows some big prices, but at the sho sales said they could make one without all the chrome and glitter, may want to take a look at thier shockwave setup

Scotts does allot of business with Downs MFG chassis.

The design shown looks a lot like the Fatmans' "superide" setup. As long as the frame rails are adequately supports on the inside it should be fine. Personally, I'd box at least 18" of the rail where the crossmember mounts, then weld a couple gussets on each side from top of frame to the crossmember using 1/4" steel, maybe box the gussetts in for strength and to look better from the top. 1/8" steel should be adequate for boxing frame and gussetts.

The lower control arms are held on in the regualr MII fashion. Make sure the crossmember is strong enough and there should be no problems. The lower control arms need to be as wide as possibe in the rear, fully supported, if strut rods aren't used. The only strut rod eliminator I'd use is the type made from tubular steel that has a pivot rather than bushings on the end. But a wide lower control arm and properly made crossmember should be great. I think I' make my own lower crossmember from 1/4" sidewall tubing for everyday use. The stock crossmember is thinner, but it's also heat treated steel, not the mild steel you buy at the steel supply! To use mild in place of heat treated you need to go 1/2 the heat treated thickness more, so if the heat treated is 1/8" you need to go 3/16" in mild steel to come close to the same strength.

Hey that looks like a much better suspension set up than the typical Mistang ll with the slide adjustment, The pictures you posted, Thats the one I would go with!!

Marlon Mitchell
1966 Mustang Coupe 425HP // 306 CID
www.allmustangandfordclub.com
www.fly-ford.com

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well I'm not running coil overs... but that's not the failure point in the MII anyway... here's a pic of what I did with my Heidts in a '53 f-100 under a 460...

hope you get some use from it

it's all dressed up and pretty now...but the details are...
replaced the two support tubes (inner and outer) with one heavier tube welded at all points it touches the crossmember then added the additional brace at the back end of the control arm and finally boxed in the crossmember to add strength to that weak point... all this from Phat's suggestions... we were going to add gussets between the rear of the support tube and the crossmember but honestly didn't think they were needed

john

BTW the whole article is on my site http://jniolon.clubfte.com

http://www.clubfte.com/users/jniolon/fullleftside1.jpg