I have a 40 Ford coupe deluxe and I am currently doing a ground up restro on it, I Noticed a bolt in MustangII front end from Speedway motors does anyone have any knowledge on them or more info on them I looked at the instructions and they were pretty straight forward. I was going to go with a 4" dropped axle and a posies front spring with slightly split wishbones, but all my buddies said go with the mustang II. Any thoughts?
Either one works. Simple? Absolutley not. It depends on what you mean by resto. If you are aiming for some sort of "period look" the the dropped axle is the way to go. If you want an arguably nicer ride, and better brakes, to better handle today's roads, at today's speeds, with today's idiot drivers, then you might consider the MII suspension. Keep in mind, the MII suspension setup will not end there, you will be required to address the brake issues, as in the master cylinder and lines, etc., which could affect the clutch pedal ***embly, if you are staying with the manual transmission, as well as modifying the steering column to get it mounted at the bottom, and to get the shaft attached to the rack. Don't be fooled by "bolt-on". The crossmember "bolts-on", as do the suspension and brake components, just about everything else does not. I install MII setups all day long. That said, every single vehicle I own, including my OT/DD has a solid/beam axle in the front. Only one has disc brakes.
I looked at the speedway version of the "bolt IN" ifs at Columbus this summer.. while the construction is somewhat different than the ch***is engineering version (both companies offer bolt in ifs for 40 ford) the difference is that the speedway version Requires that you use a full lower control arm and you cannot use the stock ford lower control arm and ford strut rod.. I know many people like to eliminate the strut rod, and use the other style lower control arms, but i personally feel that having stock ford parts are an advantage so in summary.. if you want bolt in ifs there are now two options' 1. speedway bolt in IFS. which has on the market for maybe a year? (and appears to cost $599) OR 2. ch***is engineering bolt in IFS which has been on the market for at least 15 years (and retails for $625)
Before I would buy a Speedway unit, I would definetly talk to someone that has used one of their crossmembers, as their track record with knockoff Mustang II is not very good. They had a overly large amount of alignment problems with their knockoff weld in units. Just beware.
Thanks for the info My 40 will be street rodded as per say 350/350 quick change rear with maybe wide 5 front and rear (I have a lot of race car stuff laying around) power disc all the way around wife gonna drive it to (maybe a cage in it ) sitting about 2.5 to 3 inchs off the ground.
Some of their weld-on units are made by Lakeshore Fabrication. http://www.lakeshorefab.com/mustang-ii/ We have used dozens of these units in our shop, and have found them to be of outstanding quality. Zero problems on the Lakeshore stuff. Other units, not so much. We've even gotten delivered mismatched components. I have no idea on the bolt-on stuff from Speedway. We weld everything.
I would just get a dropped beam, and some vintage spindle snout adapters to get the race stuff on them.
At one time Lakeshore made the knockoff weld in units for Speedway. That is when they hade the aligngment issues. It seems that the hats were built wrong. At one time they stopped using them as a vendor. I don't know if they use Lakeshore now.
We got a Lakeshore unit in a few weeks ago, from Speedway. We had no issues with it, or any other Lakeshore unit.
I have a Heights IFS, its a weld in and i like the way it handles. Chasic Eneering Trans kit and there rear spring kits. I run a flathead with c4 auto and 8" rear. It handles great you may need a roll bar.LOL
Put a Ford in a Ford!! A 302W or 351W with a C-4 or AOD will fit in with a little work and then it's ALL FORD!!
I know the shop that did my wheel alignment on my Fatman M11 told me some guys had installed off the shelf M11 on their rods that could not be aligned,,the geometry was wrong for the application so ya I would be talking to some people who have used the speedway setup for your application
I have been driveing hard my Mustang 2 front end for a month now . If you are gonna go fast on torn up roads it works good .i would have not choosin this route but it was in place when i started project . i am also running coil overs in the rear .car wieghs 2620 with me in it and a big block .
If you're going IFS and want to save some dough on a quality kit-consider Welder Series-can't go wrong.
I have a Ch***is Engineering MII in my 40 along with QA1 coilovers and narrowed control arms. I love it. Best riding, driving, handling rod I have had. Just drove it 2500 miles. Then again, it sounds like your 40 will most likely be a short trip ride. If so, I would stick with a dropped axle myself. Simpler and still gives a good ride and drive. My next project is a 40 tudor that will be a simple around town driver and it will be an I beam car.
Like I said, at one time, about 6 years ago Speedway had problems with Lakeshore. At that time all their products were put on a sales hold. They might have gotten the issues corrected, but at that time they sure caused me problems (I was on the tech line at Speedway). If they got the alignment issues corrected, great for them.
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