anyone use one of these kits in their Mav/Comet by chance? http://www.fatmanfabrications.co/products/1965-1973-ford-maverick-strut-ifs-conversion-kit/ ps, dont know why the year range is fudged
I read about a guy that put one in his Mustang, and it all wore out in less than a year. It's on Protouring.com, I'll see if I can find it..
I think I found it...reading now, kit wasnt as bolt in as they claimed..he has a few installs issues....on like page 12 to where he installed kit did power tour and put on about 6k plus miles and said struts were in bad shape http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...oject-quot-Code-Blue-quot?p=691132#post691132
I would like to see one of those 1965 mavericks...lol... I still think the Rod & Custom rc-107 kit is one of the best on the market....
I can't speak for the cradle mount but it's predasessor that used a stock type LCA with a fox body spindle set up with a strut in the stock shock location. It worked real nice. I know this guy had problems but fatman has been in business a long time and if they made junk all this time I'm sure they would have went out of business. This guy stated he bought his car with the setup already installed, who to say the PO didn't set it up wrong? Not saying there couldn't be problems with the cradle mount but I have bought many items from fatman and all have been of good quality.
I don't know, but if you look on the first page of that thread, he's installing it? Anyways, it doesn't seem to be a popular conversion. In Modified Mustangs last month, they installed a CPP kit on a Mustang. I had seriously thought about the Fat Man kit, until I read that...
I went back to page one, and I see he did everything and a very good job at that, sorry for that mistake. Too bad to hear that about the cradle system. I have upper and lower tubular control arms and 2" dropped spindles for my 64 Galaxie from them and they are nice pieces. I also have 2" dropped spindles on my current maverick, so far they look like they will work nicely. I have also installed his MII crossmembers in 3 53 to 56 F-100s, not show pieces but everything worked great.
I have to say, as much as I hate to. That I have heard way too many issues with Fatman problems. I would never buy any of his stuff. If even only 50%is true it's still far too many for me to put faith in. I know he has been around for a long time. But there are far too many accounts of parts failures on his products. Bad suspension has the possibility of killing someone if it fails.
The design is certainly sound and would definately be lighter and more responsive with far less sprung weight than typical MII kits. With our shock tower designs.. I'd always be worried about movement/flex associated with these types of designs and bracing/reinforcement would be mandatory due to the extra loads transmitted towards the strut tops. Unfortunately, many custom/hybrid setups like this can have geometry/load point issues that wear out parts prematurely if not setup/tuned properly as well.. so there's always that to consider here too. The OEM parts used are certianly up to the task and have been road/race tested more than most.
looks like all the rack n pinion kits takes the place of your belly bar, or fancy roadrace belly bar what about the diffence in tierod? or was it strut rod ..or do they have a specific maverick kit?
