I can really relate to your situation. When I first bought my '68, I was amazed at how poorly the car handled. The bad part is that everything functioned exactly as well as it did when the car was new, which is not saying much. Here's a few tips to get you headed away from the white-knuckle syndrome: first, realize that the problem your facing is most likely flex-related and anything you can do to control flex is a plus. I'd start with a 1" front bar and a 3/4 rear bar. Not everyone agrees with rear bars, but they're on pretty much all new vehicles, and I wouldn't own a vintage Ford without one. Cost-wise, it's also pretty tough to beat the classic A-arm drop. It's easy, effective and free! If you don't know what that is, feel free to PM me or do a search for "Shelby Drop" and you should find what you're after. As long as you've got the A-arms out to drill for the A-arm drop, you may as well think about a shock swap. Good shocks will do wonders for your ride and handling and range from decent, non-adjustable oil shocks, to nitrogen-charged shocks, to Konis and Spax double adjustable (and double spendy) shocks. Personally, I like the way my lowered '68 drives, rides and looks, so I'd lower it a tad too. How big a tad is purely personal preference. Beware of spring swapping: too stiff will not be good for your kidneys or your 40 year old car. A coworker ignored all common sense and bought 620 lb fronts and 5 leaf rears and KYB gas shocks and is not even a little happy with the result. The car sits too high (even though the fronts were advertised as 1" drop) and rides like a logging truck. Not good. Leaf springs are easy enough to fix, simply remove one of the leaves and try again, but the fronts are not so easily fixed, so be careful when buying them. Another often over looked item is the steering wheel, the bus-size wheel that came stock on your car gives you waaay too much leverage and when combined with the sensitive power steering, is enough to change lanes everytime you so much as hiccup. A medium size wheel (no lowrider "chain" steering wheels please) will lessen the effect and make it more fun to drive, plus you can still loan the car to the missus since it will still have power steering. Also, as has been pointed out, worn bushings and the like never help, so consider swapping to graphite-impregnated urethane (no squeeks) when the time comes to replace the soggy rubbers. Good luck
. try it out see if it works for you too
You can't even barely attempt to get a true feeling for your car's handling until you do. I tried to drive my car after rebuilding the front suspension, and even though I'd measured the strut rods and did a home alignment, the car was still sketchy as hell. It was so bad that I couldn't do more than 30mph on the way to the alignment shop and even then I could only barely keep it in the lane.
