I just lucked into a mustang II front end to stick under my new toy but its missing strut rods. My thinking is to try something different and instead of running strut rods I'll weld part of another control arm to it where the strut rod would be. As long as I keep my mounting points in line as far as the bushings it should travel just fine. Any other ideas or reasoning as to why it wouldn't work?
I don't understand what or why you would do this. Not an expert, but there was a reason Ford had strut rods in the first place. You can buy replacement strut rods and buy or fab the frame brackets for them. If you do not want to purchase replacements, then search out an OE pair. Mike
Check out the Full Tilt web page (attached), they have a neat replacement for the stock mustang II strut rod.......it's kind of a "J" piece. I have it on the front end of my '39 Ford and it works great. Easy to install. http://www.fulltiltstreetrods.com/cross_members.htm
Well crud, thats basicly what I was gonna build. Somebody else already tried. So it should work. http://www.fulltiltstreetrods.com/strut_rods.htm
do a search on here, and you will find a ton of info on this topic, ElPolacko has some great photos of one we fixed a few years back. the strut rods are there for a reason, and tube control arms are NOT an answer.
I think strut rods are stronger and safer than those tubular control arms. If your local junkyard has a Mustang II, a Pinto, or a Mercury Bobcat, you can get the lower control arms along with the strut rods pretty cheap.
I used the strutless lower A arms on my 40 ford pickup and never had a problem, and it made for a very clean installation. but Keep in mind strutless lower A arms are much bigger than stockers.
You can buy the strut rods cheap from Speedway motors (and probably others, too). They carry shock loads to the frame rather than the crossmember, which is a good thing. (Ask el polacko - he knows EVERYTHING about this stuff)
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