Front Suspension Budget rebuild?

That's a good explanation of the Shelby/Arming drop. It's a basic and significant improvement to the poor stock suspension geometry of all Falcon-chassis cars.

I love that YouTube channel. They're a wealth of information about a huge variety of Ford matters.

 

The drop is good for a lot of cars. They do it to the first gen Firebirds and Camaros as well as version using taller spindles on first gen a body Chevelles and their cousins.

 

It's not like the manufacturers didn't know they were compromising the handling of the cars with that sort of camber curve. It's just that in those days it was considered a good idea for the front of the car to start plowing early. Now we expect our cars to handle better, and that changes things.

 

Shoot, they handled amazing compared to the cars of the 50's! Everything is a compromise in auto manufacturing, back then they wanted a cushy ride.

 

As much as it's frowned upon to post on a thread that's been inactive for close to a year, I want to throw in an update. I'll be using a "61-65 Ford Falcon Coilover Conversion Kit Double Adjustable Coil Over 450LBS" From CPP on Ebay for the front suspension, and for at least $200 cheaper than Viking, I think it's well worth it (The CPP kit comes with all the hardware, bushings, and thrust plates you need, along with detailed instructions). The only issue is the top mount is the older stud mount rather than the eyelet struts, but making a mount should be pretty easy I'd think. The guy who owned the car before me had the entire front end rebuilt, then had it sit in storage for 3 years, so the handling problems was most likely from the car sitting for so long, and the fact that it wasn't aligned. For the rear, all of the bushings were completely shot, so I have new bushings for the leaf spring mounts, but I will be keeping the OG leaf springs and deal with them when they flatten entirely. Apparently, KYB KG5447 shocks will fit so I will be using them for the rear. Eventually I will post pictures of the coilovers once they are installed, because I'm sure I'm not the only one looking for a cheaper and easy way out of $750+ coilovers.

 

Used to be Viking coilovers is what CPP sold. I like CPP's stuff, a couple of us have installed their Mustang mini subframes in our Mavericks.