On 4 wheels

For the first time since I owned the car, it is resting on its own four wheels and a suspension.  It sounds like an insignificant moment but to me its very encouraging.  This 65 mustang can now be endowed with its drive train and eventually move under its own power and the thought of that makes want to get out there and turn wrenches to hasten that moment's arrival.  

Front Suspension - Completed

To complete the install of the Total Cost Involved front end, I primed and painted the Mustang's frame and cross member parts and control arms and got the fasteners organized.   

I started the installation with the lower control arms and coil-over shocks.  This was extremely easy.  Its just a matter of bolting the parts in place.  No adjustments needed.  Next came the upper control arms.  This was also simple but required some thick washers to be added for setting the initial camber.   

This step was followed by installing the pre-assembled spindles.  When I ordered the front end kit from the dealer, Ryan at Stang-Aholics, I opted for the basic disc and caliper and it comes ready to install with bearings packed and calipers and pads already in place.  

After that, I installed the power steering rack.  The rack needs to be steered to the center point on the range so that the steering wheel will be centered. At this point I set the toe-in to roughly 1/8" at the rotors and spun the tie-rod ends on to equal turns and attached them to the spindles.

Lastly, I installed the sway bar.  I decided to leave it a steel finish and clear coat it.   

Finally, the suspension install is complete and ready for the engine and wheels.  Just in time since I need to push the car out of the garage to do some electrical work on the house.

Next, after painting the firewall and the rest of the floor underneath, I will be installing the RJM Injection EFI harness and the ECU.

Sway bar mount

The old strut rod mount and sway bar bracket had to be removed and the new sway bar mount installed in its place.  This requires drilling out 13 or 14 spot welds on each mount/bracket and separating the parts from the frame.  Sounds easy but if you dont cut all of the welds or miss a little bit, the task is a real knuckle buster.  I did eventually get the old parts off but not without cutting the parts a little to make the job easier. 

The new Total Cost Involved sway bar brackets were pretty easy to install.  I just cleaned up the area with the grinder, clamped it in place and welded.  Welding was easier since I only had to attach the 3/16" thick bracket to thick sheet metal frame rail.

While the primer was drying, I finished installing the rear end.  Always nice to see some more parts installed.  Its starting to look like a car and will be on four wheels soon. 

Next: Front Suspension Completed

Front Suspension 7

I was unpacking the box with the power steering rack and came across some parts that I didn't realize that I had.   A new sway bar and its mounting hardware.  I was going to install one as a later upgrade but of course I'll mount that puppy now.   This means removing the old sway bar mounts and strut rod mounts and installing the Total Cost Involved sway bar brackets

... And I thought I was done welding.

Next: Sway Bar Mount

Front Suspension 6

Once everything was plumb and square, I completely welded around the cross member's contact points. After a finish grinding I was ready to install the A-arm/shock towers.

The A-arm/shock tower is bolted in place using the alignment hole and clamped against the frame rail for tack welding.  After clamping, I noticed that the tower was not square to the frame rail and cross member so I had to add a thin shim between the frame rail and the tower.  Once lined up right, I tacked it in place and removed the clamps.

The final welds were done with my Millermatic 140 MIG welder cranked up to 100 and wire speed at 67. I could have definitely used a little more power but I was able to accomplish it with more than one pass in some places.

The front end welding is finally complete! If I was impatient I would start bolting parts on now but I think I'll resist the temptation.


  Any suggestions?

Next: Front Suspension Part 7

Front Suspension 5

With the .030 MIG wire replenished and a fresh Argon/CO2 fill up,  I completed the frame rail boxing and was ready to install the new cross member. This is where the more "funner" installation of new parts begins.

The Total Cost Involved 1965 Mustang coilover suspension comes with a new heavy-duty cross member frame piece with the motor mount ears, lower control arm mounts, and power steering rack mounts in place. Installation is just a matter of slipping the cross member in from underneath, up against the locating plates and carefully welding around the contact points.  

In reality though, it didn't go as smooth as that.  The instructions say that the ends of the crossmember may need to be trimmed to fit.  My reinforced frame rail spacing is 27 1/4" and the crossmember is 27 3/8th " so I had to trim about 1/6th inch off each end.  This was easy to do once marked up and attacked with a grinder.   

Once the grinding was done, the dimensions were equal so it took a little pounding to get it in place and ready to weld.

Total Cost Involved crossmember in place with new A-arm shock tower piece.

The critical alignment points are at the locating plates and the crossmember faces must be square to the frame rails.

Next: Front Suspension Part 6

Front Suspension 4

To complete the reinforcement frame rail boxing, the bottom plates are added. They are curved to fit the profile of the existing frame rail and are aligned using the bolt hole from the original cross member bar. For the plate to lay in flat and straight, the old cross member's built-in threaded nut had to be cut and ground flush with the surface since it was protruding above the surface.

Once the smoothing was done, I clamped the plate in making sure it was parallel and square with the other reinforcement plate.  I tack welded and began to complete the perimeter welds with the MIG... crap! Out of MIG wire for now.

Next: Front Suspension Part 5

Front Suspension 3

The Total Cost Involved front suspension comes with frame boxing plates that need to be welded in.  Its important that these plates are parallel to the surfaces and square to each other since the rest of the suspension welds to them.  

The surfaces of the passenger side frame rails were pitted and wavy so it took a little extra massaging and grinding to get the reinforcement plates to sit where they need to be.  The top edge of the side piece and the outer edge of the top piece need to be parallel.  I also used a cut-off and sanding disc to get the top outer corner nice and straight. 

It took a few clamps to keep the edges lined up for welding. The edges are supposed to parallel while leaving a small gap so you can include the old frame rail in the weld but my rail was a little too narrow.  

I tack welded around the edges on all sides and left room to drill holes in the top outer edge to reveal some of the old frame rail.  This allows me tie the old metal to the plates for extra strength.

These plates are completely welded but there is still one more plate to weld in on the bottom then a little more trimming.


Then its time to move on to the drivers side.

Next: Front Suspension Part 4