best place for mustang II?
- Thread starter unluckyengineer
- Start date
BullittStangV8
Founding Member
reenmachine
20+ Year Stangneter 
I used a street rod engineering kit.
My car has driven the Alcan and been hit by another car and my suspension is fine.
The also have a symetrical A-arms so the stand offs are equal, and short, instead of one being long, and needing braced.
Heidts is the company that had pictures of a failed lower a-arm mount floating around the internet.
They also started making classic Mustang kits after numerous others, and after having said it wasn't possible.
My '70 has had 2 iterations of MII suspension. The first used stock MII parts, the second a Street rod engineering kit.
If you have a earlier 'stang you can do the MII junkyard kit easy.
The suspension crossmember comes off the frame with a few big spotwelds.
With some trimming it will fit onto your Mustang frame. You will need to do something for the lower arm since it uses a strut rod. Lots of options there.
You may need drop spindles since the MII suspension will be kind of high.
Cut the stock MII spindles and see how you like it, you can always upgrade later.
Brakes: Get the brackets from a place like Afco, get GM caliper adn Granada rotors from a local auto parts store.
Do lots of research, look at everyones kit, look at the stock MII, look at lots of options, then spend.
My car has driven the Alcan and been hit by another car and my suspension is fine.
The also have a symetrical A-arms so the stand offs are equal, and short, instead of one being long, and needing braced.
Heidts is the company that had pictures of a failed lower a-arm mount floating around the internet.
They also started making classic Mustang kits after numerous others, and after having said it wasn't possible.
My '70 has had 2 iterations of MII suspension. The first used stock MII parts, the second a Street rod engineering kit.
If you have a earlier 'stang you can do the MII junkyard kit easy.
The suspension crossmember comes off the frame with a few big spotwelds.
With some trimming it will fit onto your Mustang frame. You will need to do something for the lower arm since it uses a strut rod. Lots of options there.
You may need drop spindles since the MII suspension will be kind of high.
Cut the stock MII spindles and see how you like it, you can always upgrade later.
Brakes: Get the brackets from a place like Afco, get GM caliper adn Granada rotors from a local auto parts store.
Do lots of research, look at everyones kit, look at the stock MII, look at lots of options, then spend.
My 2 cents is call Mr. Willie Ozbourne at Rods and Customs. After talking to him I changed my mind about Heidts and have no regrets about purchasing the kit from him. Top quality engineering and excellent service after the fact. Ask him about the history of the MII conversion kit..... quite interesting!!!
http://www.rcmotorsports.net/page6.html
I went with the coilover with manual rack.... NICE
http://www.rcmotorsports.net/page6.html
I went with the coilover with manual rack.... NICE
geostang351
Member
reenmachine
20+ Year Stangneter
MIG is what I always use, but of course you must be good with it. You're trusting your life to it after all.geostang351 said:
geostang351
Member
Reen, I have been following your stuff closely and seem to be one of the "students at the head of the class". With that being said, do you use a gas fed welder or a flux filled wire feed? What are your opinoins on the two? I have flux filled and seem to get pretty ungly welds....lots of popping and slag. Anty advise?
I have done both outer wheel wells, both 1/4 panels just below upper corner and other little stuff as far as experience.
I have done both outer wheel wells, both 1/4 panels just below upper corner and other little stuff as far as experience.
reenmachine
20+ Year Stangneter
I'm not here to stick up for Heidt's, although I've installed several of their kits and drive one every day, but this kind of statement is useless without some backup info. What were the circumstances of the failure? Who did the install? How was it done? Etc. There are pictures "floating around the internet" of pretty much anything you can think of.samwe said:
So? Since when do you need to be the first to do something to be good at it? We still went into space after the Soviets beat us to it. The nation's best engineers and scientists thought it was impossible to break the sound barrier at one time as well.samwe said:
All that being said, I believe the Rod & Custom kit is top-notch as well, and I'll be doing one of those next to get experience with it. Willie is indeed very knowledgeable, but not exactly an unbiased source about Heidt's. Yes, I know the history behind the rivalry.
reenmachine
20+ Year Stangneter
MIG, by definition (Metal Inert Gas), uses shielding gas. It produces far superior results to using flux core. I should rephrase that -- it produces far cleaner results than flux core. You also want to make sure your machine has enough umph to get full penetration on 3/16" steel.geostang351 said:
You don't need a huge welder -- I use a Lincoln SP-175 Plus with great results:
geostang351
Member
Man, That's beautiful! That looks like a lead weld or even a solder bar weld! Nice work.
It just seems to be a hassle finding and filling these bottles. CO2? Price for bottle and fill?
It just seems to be a hassle finding and filling these bottles. CO2? Price for bottle and fill?
reenmachine
20+ Year Stangneter
I live in a town of only 60,000 people and there are at least 3 places to get the bottle filled. Prices vary, but the results are worth it.geostang351 said:
geostang351
Member
can I use my existing mig welder, change the .030 wire to be "wire only" and purchase a bottle or do I need a whole new system, as it is not "gas ready" within the trigger/handle. 
Sorry to have hijacked!
Sorry to have hijacked!
reenmachine said:
Simply look at the design. A symetrical A-arm with shorter standoffs will be stronger. Pretty simple math too.
There is no comparison. As complex as they make it sound, suspension is simple. Either they made false statements knowingly, or had no clue what they were talking about. Neither of these is a positive. I guess I just got a bad taste from the experiences I had. Maybe I just got a bad salesman on the phone or something.
Another example is the Superide, the claim it is "all new", "not a mustang conversion". It sure looks like it has the same geomtry as a MII suspension, so when claim otherwise? if they said the re-engineered MII to be rear steer to fit certain vehicles I would see no problem.
I am not saying they are liars, but it does seem intellectually dishonest.
I did not buy from R&C, although their product looks good too.
The thing I see that annoys me, is that there is so little innovation. But, go to a custom car show and how many of the cars there have unique mods? Some, but really, at the core they all do the same things.
If those people are your customers, what incentive do you have to do some innovative stuff?
I think for classic mustang a rear steer setup would be better. A Taurus rack and some rear steer spindles might be all that is needed. I plan to do so experiments next winter on this.
geostang351 said:
Willie does his TIG. I did mine MIG. Please do me a favor and do not use a 100A box or flux core. You need 175+ amp. I used a 250A gas MIG with a .035 gauge wire and took my time (not to mention that I had a couple of welding buddies helping me). The trickiest part for me was the motor mounts, but with patience and a lot of measuring and re-measuring. I say it was tricky because I tucked in both motor mount vertical support about 15 degrees.
I have a bunch of pics of the project if you are interested.
Claude
geostang351
Member
I'm always willing to learn especially with welding. Pics would be great as they are worth a 1000 words
reenmachine
20+ Year Stangneter
I don't understand what you mean. What are you referring to as a standoff? By symmetrical do you mean that the upper and lower arms are the same, dimensionally? Please clarify so we're on the same page with our discussion.samwe said:
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