best place for mustang II?

unluckyengineer · Apr 9, 2005

Hey you guys just wondering where the best and cheapest but still secure place to get a Heidt's mustang II front end kit for a 66.

allcarfan · Apr 11, 2005

Im an idiot and misread the thread....

disregard this post and accept my apologies.

unluckyengineer · Apr 11, 2005

speaking of which I wouldn't be able to fab together an actual front end from a mustang II and make it work would I?

Sundance · Apr 11, 2005

unluckyengineer said:
speaking of which I wouldn't be able to fab together an actual front end from a mustang II and make it work would I?

It's been done before. Do a search on google. I'll see if I can find it in the mean time. Personally it's not worth the time for the money saved in the end.

BullittStangV8 · May 22, 2005

ttt. where is the best place to buy a m2 front conversion?

reenmachine · May 24, 2005

unluckyengineer said:
Hey you guys just wondering where the best and cheapest but still secure place to get a Heidt's mustang II front end kit for a 66.

BullittStangV8 said:
ttt. where is the best place to buy a m2 front conversion?

PM/email sent to both of you guys.

samwe · May 24, 2005

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.

Dr_Pain · May 24, 2005

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

geostang351 · May 24, 2005

Can this be done with a simple Mig welder or is super-welding-knowledge a must?

reenmachine · May 24, 2005

geostang351 said:
Can this be done with a simple Mig welder or is super-welding-knowledge a must?

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 · May 24, 2005

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.

reenmachine · May 24, 2005

samwe said:
Heidts is the company that had pictures of a failed lower a-arm mount floating around the internet.

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:
They also started making classic Mustang kits after numerous others, and after having said it wasn't possible.

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.

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 · May 24, 2005

geostang351 said:
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.

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.

You don't need a huge welder -- I use a Lincoln SP-175 Plus with great results:

geostang351 · May 24, 2005

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?

reenmachine · May 24, 2005

geostang351 said:
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?

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 · May 24, 2005

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!

samwe · May 24, 2005

reenmachine said:
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.

Simply look at the design. A symetrical A-arm with shorter standoffs will be stronger. Pretty simple math too.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr_Pain · May 24, 2005

geostang351 said:
Can this be done with a simple Mig welder or is super-welding-knowledge a must?

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 · May 24, 2005

I'm always willing to learn especially with welding. Pics would be great as they are worth a 1000 words

reenmachine · May 24, 2005

samwe said:
Simply look at the design. A symetrical A-arm with shorter standoffs will be stronger. Pretty simple math too.

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.

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