I will need 5 inches of clean travel at the differential, which is only 3.6 inches of compression at the spring. Tons of room. The main driver for the 5 inches of travel is a result of the shock absorber choice. I had to find a shock that would compress to 10 inches or less and I wanted a style that had mounting eyes at both ends. I hate shocks…[Read more]

Made 2 upper spring frame brackets today from some angle iron and 2 1/2 inch exhaust pipe. The spring is a coil-over type, but will be used as a regular coil spring. This is because the Mustang lower trailing arm has a small pad for a coil spring with only a 2 5/8 inch inside diameter.

Put a couple of chamfers into the frame to make room for the back of the upper A-Arms. If you look under the hood of Mustang II you will see the same chamfers in the unibody frame.

Had to offset some because I didn’t have enough travel room in center with the driveshaft directly below. Not as much as the C type .My expert said a slight offset is still OK.

To answer edsnova, I was told that Alpha had a similar setup, but their arm is located from behind creating what’s called a Watts link (look it up, real interesting).  I considered locating behind as the angles are better, but had no room, it would have had to be 12″ and would have stuck out into the gas tank area.

I already welded the frame sides. My welds are ugly but I always grind an angle to let the weld penetrate. I have more metal as ground off filings on the garage floor than I do in the welds on the frame. I also added a reinforcing plate across the inside corner of each intersection since this is where the stresses are greatest.

The tradeoff is to raise the roll center to the middle of the ball-joint. It might feel a little funny, or at least something new when I really push it in slalom turns. In return I get less parts, a tight rear suspension but still have room for double exhaust to wrap over the axles. A panhard would have been in the way. I could always replace with…[Read more]

Although I have rebuilt several old cars and trucks, some with serious body rust problems, this is my first frame. I am lucky to have a friend down the street who likes to build cars from scratch. I’m down there about twice a week with my progress and asking advice on the next step. It was his suggestion to use an A-arm instead of a panhard.

One side of frame laid out and tacked togetherWelded the two frame sides.Bracket for Ford 8″ to hold a ball joint. This serves as the third link and makes a panhard unnecessary.A-Arm from Speedway Race catalog, later will be bolted to a frame crossmember that I can only locate once lower trailing arms are done and pinion angle set. Long way from…[Read more]

It’s been a while since I made real progress. Problem was I needed to finish the design of the rear suspension. The driver was that it had to fit and also needed to change over from the MII 40″ leaf spring to smaller coil spring setup. Also had to fit either a three or four link with panhard within the confines of the room given under the package…[Read more]

OK, since the subject is roll-bars, here’s one. It’s from a junkyard Kia Sportage and has been shortened 9 inches and narrowed about a foot, installed backward so it will fit within the wheel housings. It will be removable, being bolted directly to brackets welded to the frame arches.And here it is behind a test seat. The seat, by the way is the…[Read more]

Unfortunately the 15X19 Tracker and Suzuki (same vehicle) radiator is actually 19X15 at the core and outside width is 21 7/16. The forklift radiator core width says 23″??

The old rule is a minimum core frontal area of one square inch per cu in plus 10% (in a properly shrouded setup). For 171 cu in engine that would be 188 square inches. 14X14 is about the minimum. That sprint car radiator I found is my best bet so far with 220 square inches at 16.13 width and 17 inch height. Inlet and outlet are only 1″ but engine…[Read more]

Cool. Thanks for the links. I also found a sprint car radiator that might fit:http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Spike-Stand-Up-Mini-Micro-Sprint-Radiator,40627.html

I’m still planning to use a 2.8 V6, so there won’t be much distance between the engine and the radiator shell. I measured 60 1/2 inches from shifter hole center to front edge of bonnet side panels. The engine is 56 1/2 from shifter to front of fan blade. 4 inches total is not much for radiator and shroud, that’s why I’m considering moving radiator…[Read more]

That should have been tack rag, not tack rack……

Here’s what I would do to finish a dash like that. First fill all the saw kerfs. You’re on the right track using sawdust and glue, but sometimes that combination ends up much darker than the sorrounding wood. I would fill the cracks with clear epoxy then sand flat. Sand with 110, 200. Next you want to seal the pores, you can use clear sealer like…[Read more]

Color coding is not always consistent. Ground connects to the shell of the bulb and the two hots each connect to one of the two contacts at the base of the bulb. Follow the wires, or check the continuity.