64 Fairlane Strut Front Suspension Conversion Its Done! JIT for the bash!

Hopefully we get a track around here somewhere. 3 to 4 hours of driving + hotel rooms makes it a lot more expensive to race. Plus its hard to do any testing. Have you heard anymore about Gateway?

Gateway will be OPEN next year! Driving 2+ hours to race is getting old.
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/motor-sports/article_bc37b8d0-be43-5b30-8668-f8cc8c18edc0.html
Justin

Yep. Saw that last week. I'm pretty excited especially after getting home at 3:30 am from Sikeston last Sunday. Car has definitely picked up. Ran 6.33 at 108. Can't wait to get it back on a 1/4 mile track.

awsome looks great nice job. my 500 has a canton rearsump and a kaase pump . so id have to use frnt steer which would eliminate granada spindles. i wonder if i can get a tubelar k member fox body mustang to work, or stick with mustang 11 frnt end. nice job looks great at track ..

Pro64, use foxbody or sn95 spindles. that is what I an using!

I am want to someting on my 62. May be Mustang II style front.Post pics if you can.Your car sounds cool.

No Bolt, I am switching to the mustang 2 front. I no longer want to deal with the shock towers! I will be using Rod & Customs k member for coil overs!

Mike

Dragging this up from the dead. I'm unfamiliar with the front ends of these old Fords. Could the same be done to the front of a 63 Falcon? A friend is in need of an extremely short shock for his Falcon and thought about another setup like a full on MII setup. But the money is tight so I mentioned a stock lower arm, Fox spindle and strut assembly...

Thoughts?

jbozzelle wrote:Mike

Dragging this up from the dead.  I'm unfamiliar with the front ends of these old Fords.  Could the same be done to the front of a 63 Falcon?  A friend is in need of an extremely short shock for his Falcon and thought about another setup like a full on MII setup.  But the money is tight so I mentioned a stock lower arm, Fox spindle and strut assembly...

Thoughts?

Fatman makes a kit that bolts (or welds) on that uses Mustang strut setup. Maybe it could be duplicated for the financially challenged.  

http://www.fatmanfabrications.co/products/1963-1965-ford-falcon-strut-ifs-conversion-kit/

jbozzelle wrote:Mike

Dragging this up from the dead.  I'm unfamiliar with the front ends of these old Fords.  Could the same be done to the front of a 63 Falcon?  A friend is in need of an extremely short shock for his Falcon and thought about another setup like a full on MII setup.  But the money is tight so I mentioned a stock lower arm, Fox spindle and strut assembly...

Thoughts?

The Falcons are a little different than my Fairlane. They are close to a 64-65 Mustang. Gateway Performance Suspension makes a strut set-up for the Falcons. Here is a link to their site. http://www.gatewayperformancesuspension.com/gps_performance_strut_kits_applications.aspx I found them after we finished mine. Surprisingly they are only about a half hour from my house. They make their own spindle which allows you to keep a rear steer rack or maybe even the stock gear box. The problem with the fox spindle is that it is set up for a front mount rack which gets in the way of front sump pans in these little fords. We modified Granada spindles so we could stay with a rear steer set up. We used a Ford Escort rack since it is pretty narrow. This is still one of the best modifications we made to my car. It drives so much better and is so much more consistent leaving the line. It stops straighter also. Getting rid of the bushings in the front strut rods made stopping less eventful. I can jump on the brakes at 132 MPH at the finish line and I don't have to guess what direction I'm going to be going.   

man you sure put a lot uv thought into that frntend, looks good.may be you will see some quiker et s.i purchased a mustang 11 frntend for my comet and I found it to be fairly easy to install all u need is tyme. you should see a big difference in weight transfer on launch with those struts good luck. :   

Mike

Thanks. I'm going to pass along these links as well as all of your pictures to my buddy for him to check. He's a good fabricator so maybe he can whip up something similar.

This is what you need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vDXmhMPOQI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ZGk8iJy7g

i know this is an old thread,but really want to know how the steering rack worked out?does it have enough travel for a decent turning radius?i am going to try an omni rear steer rack on my 64 fairlane,but it only has 5 inches of travel.how about bump steer?.the fairlane has a larger frame mount for the lower control arms,so theres not much room for most steering racks.you did a great job on that front suspension,and nice car as well.