I am planning on upgrading the suspension on my 67 Mustang . I would like to replace the leaf springs with a coil over set up or simply coil springs with a late model 8.8 Mustang rear-end. Are there any kits out there for this type of upgrade or any other options?
there are a few kits out there, but they are going to be expensive, starting around $2500. probably the best kit is going to be from griggs racing, but their kit is going to run closer to about $3000. airride has a kit that is also good and well engineered also, that will run around $2500, and you get the benefits of airsprings and a four link suspension as well. the next thing is installing the suspension, and if you cant do that yourself, plan on spending another $500-1000 for labor. what are you going to do with this car? if all you plan on doing is driving on the street, dont spend the money as you will never notice the difference.
leaf springs do more than just carry the weight of the car, they also locate the rear end in the chassis, like a panhard bar, but without the added complexity. you can contact a company like flex-i-form and get fiberglass leaf springs which are lighter than the steel springs.
It will mainly be used for street duty with an occasional trip to the drag strip. My main puspose in doing it would be to improve the handling and ride quality.
ok, then best to use the stock type leaf springs. you can get fiberglass leaf springs from flex-i-form that will improve ride and handling. you can also add traction bars, shelby style underride bars, to the fiberglass leafs to improve traction. i dont recomend caltracs with the fiberglass otherwise you will ruin those springs.
other ride improvement will come from the shocks you choose. i recomend the koni red shocks set on full soft for normal driving, and adjust as needed to maintain ride quality over the miles driven. the koni's are rebuildable and usually last around 100k miles before they need rebuilding IF you start on full soft, and adjust every 10k miles. a less expensive alternative is the edelbrock ias shocks. they also improve ride quality as well as handling.
you could go with a ladder bar setup in the rear, with coil-overs. Would run about $900 when its all said and done if you can do it yourself. Or you could go with the mono-leaf setup, cal-tracs, and some good shocks for maybe $100 less, and you'd save yourself alot of headache.
For the front....replace/rebuild the steering components so all is tight again. Personally, I'm not a fan of all the rack & pinion stuff people are using, a properly functioning and maintained manual steering system feels good to me. For street and some drag use, use a somewhat soft spring, like a 6 cyl spring, coupled with an adjustable shock. I use comp engineering adjustables, I'm happy with 'em but I have heard that are not the best. You'll want a 1" sway bar for the street, and just disconnect or remove it at the strip, its worth about a .15 reduction in ET on my car. Roller perches are good from what I hear, might be my next project.
All that being said, a properly set up stock suspension, with proper adjustments and tuning, has been known to work just as well as the aftermarket stuff when its not well thought out.
Dont overlook the RRS front strut conversion, excellent quality choice of disc brake size and an reduced bump steer. I have been driving on them for several months and they give a great ride.
marshall you are right about the conversion, but again the cost/benefit ratio is all wrong. at $3000 for the kit, plus time to install it, you can rebuild and modify the stock front suspension using global west components, AND buy a new steering box from flaming river, have a pro install and align the suspension, and have plenty of money left over to put a good down payment on a ford crate engine. oh oyu can install stainless steel disc brakes as well.