I've got the front suspension and steering pieced in at this point. One of the front wheel hubs had rusted, so I replaced it with a new wheel hub assembly. While I had the spindle apart, I bead blasted it and shot some black on it. I just got the steering rack installed tonight. I put the main steering shaft in last night. I'll stop here and go through and torque everything so that I can call the front suspension and steering done.
In preparing for the rear suspension, I'm having all the junkyard IRS stuff rebuilt. That means rear wheel bearings and the rear differential.
I'm really enjoying this! It is so nice to be able to start with a clean slate. I'm taking my time and making sure the donor parts I use are cleaned up and in good working order. So far, the donor parts I've used consist of:
- Front spindles
- Steering rack (Flaming River manual rack that I put on the mustang several years agao)
- new, stock Mustang LCA's
A note about the LCA's (lower control arms): I had several suggestions on www.ffcobra.com/forums to just order and use the Factory Five LCA's as they were superior. Well, I'm sure they are, but at $480 vs the $160 (shipped!), the choice was clear to me. Getting the shock mount to work per FFR's instructions was difficult, but I worked through it and am happy with the results. Yes, the FFR tubular LCA's are lighter, but after lugging around a spindle-hub-rotor-caliper assembly, I'm not sure that the lighter LCA would make that big of a difference. Translation--that wheel end is HEAVY!
Pictures later this week.
