Has anyone tried to connect all of the stock steel parts together and make a tilt front end? I'm thinking about something in that direction possibly using hatchback cylinders to help lift it. Maybe just using a glass bumper to keep a little of the weight down.
I have bolted all the steel front clip together and it was very weak in the center due to no center support just the lower valence. You would have to build a frame inside to support across were the grill is.
I had a fiberglass tilt front end on my old 68 Mustang. Just my opinion, but I'd never do that again. It wasn't very solid (of course it was fiberglass, but really thick stuff like the old vets) and I couldn't open it by myself. There isn't always extra hands around when you decide at midnight to work on the car. I've got to believe that in the end it wouldn't weigh any less than having it bolted to the chassis.
Yeah, you really need to make at least a little bit of a brace for it, so you can lift it by yourself without it wobbling everywhere. Mounting it to a 4-link assembly to make it go up and forward before it tilts helps a lot too. My dad and uncle had a one piece front for their pinto they ran in modified, and even that little sucker took two people to pull it off without breaking it. It's mostly for the looks. I would just bolt it down or hold it down with zeus fasteners if I was just going for weight. I'm going to have a tubular mustang II front end on mine, so I'm going to show that off with a tilt front end. Should draw a crowd.
Mine is also getting the Mustang II treatment plus the towers are going to be gone completely. The weight of the whole assembly was on my mind when I started thinking about using hatchback assist cylinders. If stock ones are not powerful enough, I'm sure that maybe there are aftermarket ones that might work. On the other hand, if I went too powerful, I might have a hard time closing the hood.
I wouldn't worry about the weight too much. Semi truck front ends are heavy as hell, and I can still pull one back by myself. The real trick is getting the bottom of the fender to clear the middle of the door. That's where the 4 link comes in. It'll move the fender forward as it is sweeping up. Once you get it up (ha ha), you can use something similar to what is on a folding table leg to keep it up. That locking 2 bar thing. Am I making sense?
I saw somewhere, maybe on Craig's Maverick Heaven page, a Maverick with a home made tilt steel front end sitting in a junk yard. They left the rear lower sections of both fenders bolted to the car and then made a horizontal cut somewhere near the center of the fender and only tilted from that point up. I assume that it eliminates most of the clearing of the door problem. I won't know for sure until I experiment with a junk fender and see if I can make this happen. I know I will want to make the fenders come back together clean looking when tilted back in place. That might be the hard part. Also on that tall tractor hood, you have leverage on your side plus at least one foot in the front bumper hole to help.
Well, if you'd like, I can take some measurements and come up with a 4 bar design that will get it to clear without having to cut it up at all. The 4 link will have to attach to a frame, but if you're putting on air-shocks, that shouldn't be a problem. Air shocks that are used on the rear hatch of 3rd gen F-bodies are super strong to hold up that 150 lb piece of glass back there. They would work pretty well and would at least give you some good assistance.
I think what you are describing would be something like the tilt hood on a BMW. These come up and forward before they tilt. Can you draw something up?
Don't really see a point in a complete tilt front end with the stock inner fenders and shock towers. Then again you may be planning a Mustang II suspension swap along with it.
My towers are going to be history. Mustang II copy with coil overs plus I'm replacing the stock rails with 2 x 3 tubing so the Cleveland will be right out in the open with a Weiand tunnel ram and a couple of 450 Holleys. :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman
Well, I worked on it all morning and couldn't get the kinematics to work out right. The 4 link bars would have to be mounted out in space somewhere, so I went to plan B. The 4-bar worked a lot better until I traced out a fender and started positioning it. What could work is a slider on a track about 12 inches long. This might be similar to the BMW, I don't know how they work though. So, it would slide forward, and then when it hit the end of the slider you would tip it forward. Something like piece of square aluminum tubing with a slot cut in the side of it. Then a pinned cylinder that roll down the tubing, but also keep the front end from moving side to side. You could use some thin steel cable or your air shocks to keep it from tipping all the over. I'm starting to get a better idea of how this might be possible. Well, as long as it doesn't hit the front tires. You could still use a latch, but you'd have to mount it sideways instead of up and down. I can't wait until I get to this step in my project now!!
