Stilettoman
11-07-2014, 01:14 AM
My fabricator friend and long time collaborator, Sean O'Brien (forum name ESRinfo) posted some info on this project in response to a query in the Suspension section of this forum, but we have decided to post a full project thread, mostly for the benefit of the owner, who is slaving away half way around the world, and only sees his Mustang once or twice a year when he visits home. The car sat for several years because the brakes and steering were in pretty sad shape and it did not start and run well after sitting for long periods. My son suggested he have Sean do some upgrades to get the car into a more driveable state. After some research, Sean recommended conversion to power rack and pinion, four wheel disc brakes and ideally, fuel injection. The owner sent us a check and said go for it. We bought new front control arms and ball joints, and a Unisteer rack kit. The car had been poorly repaired form a previous fender bender, so Sean replaced the inner fenders and core support. He also installed some of the recommended reinforcements to the shock towers and suspension mounts, lowered the upper control arm mount as recommended, but decided not to install the stock type spring arrangement. Many of you will be familiar with the kits which replace the stock spring, which attaches to the upper A-frame, with a modern coil over shock which attaches to the lower control arm. Rather than spend $2600 for the kit to do this, Sean used a pair of control arm brackets that he removed from a Ferrari he was modifying several years ago, a pair of adjustable KYB shocks that our friend Peter removed from his 240SX after only a few thousand miles, and a pair of Mazda RX-7 springs. The brackets have about 2 inches ride height adjustment. Of course we have not yet driven it, but it seems to sit about right - there is always the chance we will want to change the spring rate after we drive it. The moral of this story has two parts:
1. Being a pack rat may annoy your wife, but it can save you money. 2. You may have scrap parts left over from just about any project, but you should NEVER throw away parts you remove from a Ferrari.
104962 104963
We wanted to use modern brakes, preferably with four piston calipers, and the better quality kits are priced at $1,000 and up. We went to our friends at Foreign Engines Inc, our local JDM source, and bought a pair of Nissan Skyline 11 inch front brake rotors and four piston aluminum calipers in good condition for about $200. Like most all top line Nissan and Toyota cars these days, they are 5 by 114.3 bolt pattern, which is close enough to 5 by 4.5 inch, so the wheels fit. We needed to space the wheels out about one inch for the more modern wheels we are considering, and I just happened to have some 1 inch spacers. Sean took some measurements and found that by putting the spacers INSIDE the brake rotors, the caliper adapter could be made from a piece of 1/2 inch aluminum plate, as shown in the photo. This required machining about 1/8 inch off the diameter of the spacers.
104964 104965 104966 104967
Installing the Unisteer power rack kit requires some grinding on the flanges of the frame to make it fit. The round tubular crossmember is replace by the mount for the rack. Sean welded in a couple of pieces that bolt to the lower control arm brackets to make the assembly more rigid.
104968 104969
Sean was planning to buy a rear disc brake kit for about $500, and install some extra half leafs in the front of the rear springs, maybe a Panhard rod to give better lateral support. I just happened to have a complete Infiniti J30 rear suspension, with a limited slip differential and large disc brakes, which I paid $200 for complete. This is almost identical to the Skyline suspension unit we installed in my 48 Studebaker project. It is mounted in a cradle which attaches to the frame with four bolts using rubber shock isolators. It certainly does not look as neat as the 2015 Mustang suspension (see attached photo), and I am sure the new Mustang diff will handle more power, but you can see the basic layout is very similar. The tuner guys say this Nissan diff is good for at least 400 hp, which is more than this 289 will ever see. I suggested Sean consider installing this unit in the Mustang, and after some measuring and a few mental gymnastics, he decided to do it. The owner was agreeable, so Sean just started cutting and welding, and after a few days it was installed.
104970 104971 104973 104974
When we were at Foreign Engines buying the brakes, Sean spotted a very nice set of coilover struts , aftermarket pieces for a Nissan 240SX. He said "I bet these cost at least $1200 new". The only marking was "Office", which meant nothing to us, but the price was good, so we bought them. After talking to Peter, our Nissan guru, we learned that these were made by a Japanese company called Kei Office, originally sold for about $1800. Sean modified them to use on the rear with the J30 suspension, with a mount attached to the frame which intrudes only very slightly into the trunk space.
104975 104976 104984 104977 104978
The engine and trans are back in the car, and Sean is fitting all the required bits into the engine compartment. This car had unboosted drum brakes, so we need a booster and dual master cylinder. We just happened to have one we removed from a Skyline, and it seems to fit nicely, just need to drill four holes in the firewall and use a spacer to get the pushrod to the right spot.
104979
We went to a local self service auto salvage yard and removed a complete fuel injection system from a mid 90s Ford pickup with a 5.0 V8. The intake manifold is a monstrosity, covering up the injectors and wiring and generally making maintenance access difficult to impossible without removing the manifold. Sean cut up the manifold and built a much simpler unit, which greatly improves access and simplifies the plumbing.
104980 104981 104982 104983
Lots of cleanup and cosmetic work to be done yet, and most importantly, the plumbing of brakes, fuel and steering. Then the real fun begins - figuring out how to hook up all those wires. We will continue posting our progress. I should say that Sean has done virtually all the work on this project, except that I did some of the painting and small details.
I am in the early stages of building a web site, and so far have only created build summaries for three of our projects in the automotive section as seen here - might be of interest to some of you.
stilettoman.info
Ben
1. Being a pack rat may annoy your wife, but it can save you money. 2. You may have scrap parts left over from just about any project, but you should NEVER throw away parts you remove from a Ferrari.
104962 104963
We wanted to use modern brakes, preferably with four piston calipers, and the better quality kits are priced at $1,000 and up. We went to our friends at Foreign Engines Inc, our local JDM source, and bought a pair of Nissan Skyline 11 inch front brake rotors and four piston aluminum calipers in good condition for about $200. Like most all top line Nissan and Toyota cars these days, they are 5 by 114.3 bolt pattern, which is close enough to 5 by 4.5 inch, so the wheels fit. We needed to space the wheels out about one inch for the more modern wheels we are considering, and I just happened to have some 1 inch spacers. Sean took some measurements and found that by putting the spacers INSIDE the brake rotors, the caliper adapter could be made from a piece of 1/2 inch aluminum plate, as shown in the photo. This required machining about 1/8 inch off the diameter of the spacers.
104964 104965 104966 104967
Installing the Unisteer power rack kit requires some grinding on the flanges of the frame to make it fit. The round tubular crossmember is replace by the mount for the rack. Sean welded in a couple of pieces that bolt to the lower control arm brackets to make the assembly more rigid.
104968 104969
Sean was planning to buy a rear disc brake kit for about $500, and install some extra half leafs in the front of the rear springs, maybe a Panhard rod to give better lateral support. I just happened to have a complete Infiniti J30 rear suspension, with a limited slip differential and large disc brakes, which I paid $200 for complete. This is almost identical to the Skyline suspension unit we installed in my 48 Studebaker project. It is mounted in a cradle which attaches to the frame with four bolts using rubber shock isolators. It certainly does not look as neat as the 2015 Mustang suspension (see attached photo), and I am sure the new Mustang diff will handle more power, but you can see the basic layout is very similar. The tuner guys say this Nissan diff is good for at least 400 hp, which is more than this 289 will ever see. I suggested Sean consider installing this unit in the Mustang, and after some measuring and a few mental gymnastics, he decided to do it. The owner was agreeable, so Sean just started cutting and welding, and after a few days it was installed.
104970 104971 104973 104974
When we were at Foreign Engines buying the brakes, Sean spotted a very nice set of coilover struts , aftermarket pieces for a Nissan 240SX. He said "I bet these cost at least $1200 new". The only marking was "Office", which meant nothing to us, but the price was good, so we bought them. After talking to Peter, our Nissan guru, we learned that these were made by a Japanese company called Kei Office, originally sold for about $1800. Sean modified them to use on the rear with the J30 suspension, with a mount attached to the frame which intrudes only very slightly into the trunk space.
104975 104976 104984 104977 104978
The engine and trans are back in the car, and Sean is fitting all the required bits into the engine compartment. This car had unboosted drum brakes, so we need a booster and dual master cylinder. We just happened to have one we removed from a Skyline, and it seems to fit nicely, just need to drill four holes in the firewall and use a spacer to get the pushrod to the right spot.
104979
We went to a local self service auto salvage yard and removed a complete fuel injection system from a mid 90s Ford pickup with a 5.0 V8. The intake manifold is a monstrosity, covering up the injectors and wiring and generally making maintenance access difficult to impossible without removing the manifold. Sean cut up the manifold and built a much simpler unit, which greatly improves access and simplifies the plumbing.
104980 104981 104982 104983
Lots of cleanup and cosmetic work to be done yet, and most importantly, the plumbing of brakes, fuel and steering. Then the real fun begins - figuring out how to hook up all those wires. We will continue posting our progress. I should say that Sean has done virtually all the work on this project, except that I did some of the painting and small details.
I am in the early stages of building a web site, and so far have only created build summaries for three of our projects in the automotive section as seen here - might be of interest to some of you.
stilettoman.info
Ben