Hmmm...have to have a look at what you're doing here.  I'm doing something...well, I don't know about similar, but related on the front of my '64 Country Sedan, though it got shelved for a year while I've been finishing up the '65 Mustang and doing front suspension pieces for the Cortina and spending a lot of time on non-car community activities.   I'm trying to free up a lot of time to work on the project cars through summer.

I'm still planning on using double-adjustable Penskes and I have a sort of friend-of-a-friend sort of contact there, won't really help on the $ but might help with getting the tuning/valving done.

I've got a set of the Gearheads upper control arms and (unlike his steering boxes, etc.) they're very, very nice stuff - but after mocking up the installation and measuring the camber curve I decided I didn't like the upper mount/hat he'd provided, and so I drew up and cut some new inner pivot mounts that'll give me about 3/4in of adjustability on the inner pivot vertical location as well as a little on the fore/aft angle (anti-dive).   I'm debating what to do on the lower arms, have some contact info for the outfit that reputedly made the tubular arms for him and keep meaning to give them a call but just haven't gotten around to it.  






 

Last edited by JEM (April 22, 2014 11:20 am)

Hit a bit of a snag yesterday.  I went to put my plate together and the spring piece was mismatched about 1/4" where the two ends meet.  I figured no problem I would bolt the parts together clamp them down if need be and weld it all together.  After doing that I did not like the way the plates sat.  They did not provide matched planes for the shock to mount to because they were slightly tilted towards each other.  To make maters worse I dropped the assemble and the tip of the spring broke where the two ends were welded together.  I had good penetration but high carbon steel does not MIG weld well and the force of the compressed spring was working against the weld.  The solution was to cut the raised section of the coil.


I then lined it up and welded it back together.  I am not worried about the steel breaking for the final piece because the spring is more of a spacer than anything where the welds will see stress.  Here are some pix of the plate all welded up and painted.  I actually got everything put back together today but its getting late so I will post more later.

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hay Larry way to steel my thunder!!  Just kidding I am glad you got them and liked how they worked, looked and felt!!

I got mine in yesterday and am very pleased with the result.

They look at home in the car as if Ford designed them to be there.  The softer spring is much better.  I have only done the drivers side so I was able to compare the two sides and pulling down on the passengers side to compress the suspension got almost no movement but on the drivers side with the new setup there was good resistance AND I was able to get the suspension to move some.  A before and after pic is no contest.  
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In the picture I have the coil overs set at the lowest setting.  I will probably adjust them up a bit.  With the adjustable coil overs in the front and air shocks in the back I can adjust the height on all 4 corners and really get the ride height and stance dialed in the way I want it.

dan_6776 wrote:

Did you consider purchasing drop coils or drop spindles?

The only "drop spindles" I have ever seen for an early Galaxie are actually Granada spindles.  Totally different setup and IMHO not a good option as a disc brake swap.  Also in this case that still would have left me with coil springs that were WAY to stiff.  As to drop springs I looked high and low for a set of springs that would meet my needs and was not able to find one.  I know I could have had custom springs made but at that point the $$ was not that far off from the coil overs and the coil overs offer so much more adjustability.
 

dan_6776 wrote:

Did you consider going with a larger rim/tire to fill up the wheel opening.

 Short answer yes I did go with different tires to try and fill the gap.  Long answer, the rim is already a 16".  The rears have 17" and the rubber on the front is already a little taller than the rubber on the rear.  In other words the measurement from the top of the rubber to the top of the rim on the front is about .25" more than the same measurement on the rear.  This still makes the back tires .5" taller over all but the final result was more rubber in the front to help fill the gap.

dan_6776 wrote:

When you swapped out the front spindles for disc brakes, did you get any lowering?

No I used LTD II spindles which are almost identical to the Galaxie spindles.

dan_6776 wrote:

You used air bags in the rear, why not in the front?

Actually the back has stock leaf springs and then I used air shocks.  Air shocks are similar to air bags in that air pressure adjusts them but you do it with an external air compressor just like you would air up a tire.  Once their set they hold there relative length and act like any other shock.  Unlike air bags air shock o not replace the OEM springs they simple supplement them.

dan_6776 wrote:

Thanks, sorry for all the questions!

No such thing as to many questions!!  Thanks for asking.

The simple answer is the geometry that goes in to a spindle and its corresponding suspension parts is extremely complicated.  When you use a Granada spindle its not just about tire position changing, it also changed the distance between the UCA and LCA which changes the suspension arc.  This has a direct relation to the camber curve.  To much cmber and you scrub the tires, not enough caber and the car handles poorly.  The steering arm is also quite different which affects steering ratio and Ackerman angle which effects how a car corners (not about handling during fast cornering but more about how the car tracks as it goes around any corner fast or slow)  Can it be made to work, yes is it a good idea, IMHO no.  Now I could go into the complicated answer but that could take days.    

dan_6776 wrote:

BTW...I won't ask any questions for a while..lol

Keep the questions coming that is what the forum is here for.