Half-Breed

[Zachalanche]

awesome build dude. keep up the good work!!
I would like to pick your brain a little if I may??



I am, as you were, doing my homework and preparing for a build. I have a 68 fastback with a super tired 302. Ive always loved the fastbacks but no nothing in detail of ford drivetrain other than their nastalgia. I also have been wanting to do an ls swap, problably turbo, in something so ive been planning on the fback. Ive picked up an ly6 6.0 with the 6l90 trans and a 9 inch for the rear.

I was figuring on doing a must II front until I read your build and saw that you removed one!. so my question(s) is why the negativity on MustII, and what setup did you go with, and why? second was your rear end suspension choice? Did a marvellous job btw, but why the long centered lift bar? why not triangulated 4link, or an independant swap? Not knocking or picking whatsoever, just trying to figure out the correct path I should take for mine??

Oh and love the chevy ford comments...... wasnt hotrodding based on taking the best parts available putting them into what you could and going as fast as possible? wether it was in a straight line? up a windy mountain side? or even in open water?!?

I have had many more chevys than any other make so I guess that makes me a chevy guy right?! I love the 64 fairlane and had one, love the fbacks, chevelles, roadrunners, chargers, novas, and belevederes! so what is my "classification"? I am catching so much slack as well here for one having a mustang and then for putting an ls in it. Long live the haters LOL

After both shock towers cracked and the upper a-arm mounts displaced beyond repair, I subscribed to the school of thought that mustang shock towers should be removed, and purchased the mustang II suspension. The result of the installation was an extremely limited suspension travel, narrower wheelbase, smaller brakes and relocation of the engine 2" forward and .5" to the right. I later learned that the mustang II suspension has weak spindles and not the best suspension geometry which didn't matter much since it seemed like it was riding on the bump stops 90% of the time. To add insult to injury the kit came with poor quality steering U-joints that were constantly working their way loose. If I had had more money at the time I could have remedied some of these issues, but once I finally did have the money to take care of this I just wanted the whole thing out of there. Honestly if I would have just replaced the shock towers and reinforced them, I could have done a lot more with he stock suspension and I would be enjoying driving the car right now instead of posting pictures of a bare chassis on the internet. But one thing led to another and poor suspension and a bad set of piston rings turned my car into a never ending project.

I purchased the front and rear suspension together from Griggs racing after seeing a similarly equipped 70 mustang at miller motorsports park. This was the first time I had seen any car running 315's as front tires and I had to have it. hind sight is always 20/20, and I think I would build something of my own design if I were to start the project today, but the Griggs suspension is well built and I think should provide good results. Unfortunately Griggs also thinks this is the case and their prices are set accordingly.

I definitely wanted to keep the solid axle in the rear. most of this decision is out of stubbornness, and me wanting to prove to the BMW owners that a solid axle car can corner. The design is simple and a 9in rear can handle a lot of power for the price. Also, although my car isn't exactly a trans -am racecar replica, I wanted it to have that feel to it.

If you want my opinion about front ends (and all it is, is an opinion) I would stay away from the mustang II suspensions, and I would also stay away from global west (I have found they are good at making attractive powder coated parts that don't work well together.) don't underestimate what you can do with the original front end on your car. it may not be the best, but it's not the worst, and it's definitely the cheapest.