I cheated. I had the trans and rear axle out of the car when I did them. Piece of cake.
I did help my buddy do them on his car with everything still in. It took a little longer but wasn’t impossible
Today was some good weather for work on the car, that’s for sure!!! Looking forward to seeing your frame fabrication!!!
I notice your fuel lines look pretty new. How difficult was it snaking them back into place without linking them? I’m quickly coming up to that step.
I cheated. I had the trans and rear axle out of the car when I did them. Piece of cake.
I did help my buddy do them on his car with everything still in. It took a little longer but wasn’t impossible
You should be able to get some new flanged bolts online. The bolts used in the suspension are usually metric grade 10.9. My local Ace hardware actually has a great selection of flanged metric and standard bolts of all kinds of lengths.Got the front suspension stripped down.
Attempted to remove the k member. Unfortunately the bolts on the bad side are seized in the nuts. The spin in the tube, but the nuts are seized. Might have to cut them off.
Here are the bolts off the “good” side. Not good news
Looks like it’s time to pick up the welder from my buddy and get to work.
You should be able to get some new flanged bolts online. The bolts used in the suspension are usually metric grade 10.9. My local Ace hardware actually has a great selection of flanged metric and standard bolts of all kinds of lengths.
Hey Mike, if your "get the welder" comment was to weld up the holes, I can't stress how highly I recommend the smooth LMR panels. You can get them for $100 on sale usually, but they save you hours and hours of grinding and body work. Factory tooling so they basically fit right in, and drilling out the spot welds isnt too bad.
I couldn't really find anything when I was looking... I think someone post link before for the OEM's from Ford, but thing they were like 20.00+ each... I ended up scoring a set of OEM bolts on ebay couple years ago that someone put a aftermarket k-member in... there were in perfect shape... and paid like 20.00-25.00 for the whole set including the nuts... since there the only things holding in the motor and whole front suspension... I didn't want to take a chance on some aftermarket bolt...
I think as anal as you have been about every freakin thing you touch, leaving that bay full of holes will last about as long as takes to think about it. Having done it myself, I know now that anything below a certain view angle is wasted effort though. it really only amounts to the filling the holes in the strut towers if you get the front aprons Collin recommended. and for whatever reason Ford drilled the 73 bagillion holes in them, filling them is an improvement for any level of build.I'm not sure i'm going to weld up all the holes. I don't plan on going too crazy deleting things from the bay. I kinda wanted a clean, OEM look to it, so a lot of holes will be reused. Plus the bay is black so it should hide most of that.
Welder is for some frame rail repair. One side is ok, but the other side needs to be addressed. Once I tackle that, we will see how ambitious I am to do something like the smooth panels. Right now, they are a "maybe".
When you have your welder fired up,don't forget the MM swaybar reinforcement plates.
I think as anal as you have been about every freakin thing you touch, leaving that bay full of holes will last about as long as takes to think about it. Having done it myself, I know now that anything below a certain view angle is wasted effort though. it really only amounts to the filling the holes in the strut towers if you get the front aprons Collin recommended. and for whatever reason Ford drilled the 73 bagillion holes in them, filling them is an improvement for any level of build.
yes I remember that, I installed that same brace on mine, and I gave you the measurements mine had installed on car.... mine had no fitment issues. Sounds like it was end of day, and they sent it... ;-)OK, does anyone remember when I tried to install my MM 4-pt brace and found it didn't fit? Well with the K-member out, I decided to mock it up again.
My k-member definitely runs narrow, but it's undamaged. I see zero damage on it, or the frame rails. No idea what's going on. I measured my MM K-member, and the rear mounting pad bolt holes are about 1/2" narrower than on the MM K-member. I may have to slot them.
No damage visible. ALl my vin tags are intact and I see no repair on the fenders or doors, so I don't think the car was hit. Just no idea why I run narrow other than factory crappy tolerances
yes I remember that, I installed that same brace on mine, and I gave you the measurements mine had installed on car.... mine had no fitment issues. Sounds like it was end of day, and they sent it... ;-)
yes I remember that, I installed that same brace on mine, and I gave you the measurements mine had installed on car.... mine had no fitment issues. Sounds like it was end of day, and they sent it... ;-)
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