Hello! I have been a Mechanic for over 30 years. i don't however, have any experience in modifying older cars. Was hoping for some advice on which is the most cost efective way to go. We want to convert to front disks on our project. should we go with a whole new front suspension? if so a mustang II? and if we go with a mustang II front suspension, what is involved? ( i doubt that it bolts right up) if leaving the old suspension in place, where should we go for the disks? will some off another ford fit? What we are looking for is the easiest/cheapest way out of this. any advice is much appreciated! thanks! John
john, To anwser your question there first must be some other questions answered. namely in what direction are you planning on taking this car..... if you are looking for just a decent disk brake conversion i and many on here would steer you in the direction of jamco suspension. i have their sual power disc setup on my 51 tudor. very good kit. very good company to deal with. as far as the mustang II goes, it is a very good upgrade but it is also very costly upgrade if you are not able to do it yourself. if you want to go that route the best way to do it is to order yourself a frame stubb from fatman fab. it is a very straight forward instalation and very user friendly.
Well he is open to about anything, but all he really wants at this point is Front disks, at the best value. the rest of the car is basicaly stock not high HP. will any other models/years of ford front disks systems bolt on with out having to spend $1,000+
unfortunately no other front end assemblies will work that i have come accross. if this was my car or i was doing this for one of my customers. i would go with the jamco setup especially if i/he/she was planning on keeping the car rather mellow, next would be to put the new jamco tubular control arms because they utilize the granada steering knuckle(spindle rotor caliper etc).......(oops sry forget youre a mech... ) any ways havent had any experience with this yet but from what i read and hear from people that have used them they seem pretty nice. then if and eventual complete overhaul/ rebuild i would go for the mII from fatman its is a very good unit as i said before....... but to get back to your question. no since there suspension utilizes a kingpin rather than balljoints there is vvirtually no stock disc brake that can just be bolted on.
unfortunately no other front end assemblies will work that i have come accross. if this was my car or i was doing this for one of my customers. i would go with the jamco setup especially if i/he/she was planning on keeping the car rather mellow, next would be to put the new jamco tubular control arms because they utilize the granada steering knuckle(spindle rotor caliper etc).......(oops sry forget youre a mech... ) any ways havent had any experience with this yet but from what i read and hear from people that have used them they seem pretty nice. then if and eventual complete overhaul/ rebuild i would go for the mII from fatman its is a very good unit as i said before....... but to get back to your question. no since there suspension utilizes a kingpin rather than balljoints there is vvirtually no stock disc brake that can just be bolted on.
jamco has some nice goodies, this one is from Fatman which you have to have the spindles machined for the upgrade, Jamcos you do not matt
Just installed the Jamco front disk brake kit on my 50 merc. Real nice kit, it all installs right into the stock metal brake lines. The stock rims fit on the rotors with no problems. I also used the Fatman master cylinder bracket that allows you to use a more modern master cylinder. So to sum up the changes I have made: Jamco front disk brake kit, Fatman master cylinder bracket, 77 mustang master cylinder, and a adjustable proportioning valve. Its manual brakes but it works real good.
That looks real good. Thanks for posting the pic. When you put the tire back on, did the tire move out toward the fender very much?
One thing to note here, the outer bearing used on the 49-51 Merc and Lincoln is unique to those cars only, never used before or after those cars, not cheap and tough to find when you need one. The Fatman kit uses later Ford and GM tapered rollers available anywhere anytime. His kit also uses a standard Ford pickup rotor they used for 21 years, and a big piston caliper from the 80's vintage GM pickup, again anywhere anytime. Spindles are available on an exchange basis and you'll probably want to put new kingpins in it anyway. Cost is under $600.00 and can be used without a booster no problem. He also has the dual m/c conversion brackets.
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