'95 F-150 track ready street beast

[Sbeck09]

This should be interesting. I bet it's not what any of you were expecting....I sure wasn't.

Things have been progressing and I had another seemingly productive weekend of knocking out the little tasks that need to get wrapped so I can focus on building the cage and making all the necessary mounts for everything. I was feeling super optimistic.

First up was relocating the steering rack up to correct the bump steer that the new steering arms caused. Ended up having to raise it 1.5 inches, but it was a fairly easy task. I also like the new mounts much better than before. As a bonus, the rack is adjustable with washer shims too.



Also, looking back under the truck there I feel really pleased with where everything is. Looks like this is turning out the be a fantastic setup for street and track use as far as clearances go. Double duty is always a compromise, but I like this one.

So to measure my for the cage tubing and the start on that project the cab needed to go back on with the new mounts. The new gantry crane made that a fairly safe and simple task even by myself. The result was a first look at the real stance of the truck. Oh. My. God. I LOVE how this looks all low to the ground.

So then I was really ready to get an idea of how it looks so I ran over and grabbed the core support and fenders. Forgot how heavy these are. Definitely something I'd like to remedy down the road. Here is the result:



So now I'm so pumped that I'm calling my buddies and texting everyone pics to show that I'm killing it. My idea is really coming together! Until I walk around the side of the truck and look across...



Yup you see it right away too. Somehow I setup the entire front suspension too far rearward. After measuring, it was a whopping 3 inches too far back front the center of the wheel opening! I had a difficult time finding the original axle center line due to the TTB suspension not being symmetrical, but wow this is bad. So I figure I should see how much adjustment I really have in my lower arms (knowing this is not the right way).





A little more forward, but not close enough. And then if you look down at the lower arm geometry it gets worse.



So I walked away for a few hours to think it through and weigh options between cutting and moving everything I have forward or starting over with a new design. I spent this "thinking" time measuring for the cage tubes. Admittedly I am mad at myself for being this far out of spec, but I'm also frustrated because I've already built and rebuilt this suspension. I was so glad to be done with this task.

Ironically, I have had conversations with some of you where I mentioned that I would do it differently if I was starting over now. Guess what....I'm starting over now. The best solution I can come up with is the leave the body panels in position and scratch build a totally different lower subframe with more traditional style lower A arms that will slide under the frame where it actually goes. I think I will also move to the same steering rack as No Limit, Mustang II, etc. which is out of the 80's Thunderbird. It is slightly narrower, cheaper, and mounts better. This way the entire lower will be built square to itself and I can simply measure and install where it belongs just like I did with my IRS. That worked so perfectly as a system. Upper control arms/mounts and spindles will be unchanged other than moving it all forward to match the new placement correctly.

My design will be roughly based around the format of the C5/6 Corvette subframe since that's a simple square shape with robust mounts, but of course it will all be built by yours truly. So if you have a suggestion, idea, or tip speak up quick because now is your chance to chime in and help. I've been ordering parts already hoping to not lose much time to this. I'm getting it right this time damnit. Lance even let me coerce him into coming by to talk it over with me. I feel more confident about the basic design now. He also provided some good pointers to help with packaging everything better while making sure each part is adjustable.

Can I get an AMEN that the forum is letting me post again?!?!