New member, familiar car

[SSChef]

Hi everyone,

My name is Steve and a friend recommended this site to me. I have a few classic car projects and one in particular I found on this site.

https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...=nascar+falcon

I purchased this car and drove it around for a bit. Fun car with tons of power. A couple things i didn't like was the rear end noise and it had a big vibration over 60 mph.

Putting the power to the ground took its toll and broke a few parts. The suspension needed some attention and luckily a local shop was able to get it sorted.

While in the shop he suggested we turn to a pro-touring/g-machine look instead of the drag race feel it had. I was all for it since its primarily a street car.

First step was fixing the rear suspension and a wheel tire package that will compliment the car. Stock looking body with a reliable suspension package.


The lower wishbone rod end snapped while I was going through a clover leaf. Not fun. Took out the quarter panel and 335 tire. During the inspection he found a few potential issues. Easily fixed.

Since the car has massive tubs and a back half we started from scratch. Cut out the outer wheel houses so he can move the tire out closer to the body. The Falcons quarter panel shape makes it tough to do. He pretty much has to reshape the quarter and still keep it looking original.

He determined the rod end broke when the wishbone contacted the frame rail. He said that the car has a lot of body roll and a few components get close during long sweeping turns. The lowers actually hit.

[SSChef]

First order of business was to figure out how much tire we can stuff in there.

The shop had a set of Forgelines in the display area. I like them so much that I made an offer. They were a set that the Ring Brothers used for mock up on one of their fords and I am a huge fan of their work. The Fairlane is a big inspiration for this car.

The sizes are 18x10 front and 19x12 rear running 275/35/18 and 325/30/19. Its going to take a bunch of work to get it right. Especially on the front. Its tight up there.

Back to the first step. Cut out metal and keep fitting.

First section is the rear since there is so much damage there to start and the car is stuck on the rack. The shop is tight for space and cars have to at least roll to keep the owner happy.

[SSChef]

With the rear clear we can start cutting the front so we can fit the 18x10 275's which i'm told is not possible. There is a bunch of body panels in the way. If its hitting, move it till it stops hitting. Then go a little further.

Torque box left and right. Cut!

Battery tray bulge. Cut!

Steering box bulge. Cut!

Frame rail pinch. cut!

Wheels are in. He says that was the easy part.

Trial fitting the wheels and tires exposed a few more spots to cut out. The front fender lip, that needs to go. He has a trick to cut them out and replace them with 3/16" cold rolled steel for reinforcement to maintain the fender shape. Looks like he will add a slight bulge to it since we may need it.

[SSChef]

On the rear, when the suspension let loose the tire went into the front of the quarter and buckled it up pretty bad. We found out that the section is full of rust.

We may do a reshape to gain more tire clearance but we won't know till we get the full suspension in and travel tested. He wants to move the wheel rearward with longer links before that happens.

He will be reshaping the rear arch to give us a fluid tire space. The factory quarter starts tight, comes out then comes back in tight. Its almost a 2" difference.

[Try2paz]

cool car, love the Falcons! I saw the car when i stopped by that shop. It's beautiful! Any thoughts on doing some road course days?

[WILWAXU]

Great car! Love the updates.

[rustomatic]

Thanks for being brave. This car deserves to be made right; by that, I mean fully functional. It's always such a pain to see how people address paint and cosmetics before addressing full-force functionality. It's good to see that you were at least not injured . . .

It's hard to believe that someone expected that wishbone thing to address lateral movement, especially with the force of those huge tires. It's also important to be suspect of suspension linkage that is wrapped with Dynamat. Every time we buy one of these things, there's always a new set of not-so-funny problems to address. I'm sure Ron Sutton has a million good ways to securely locate the quick change rear.

Here's to seeing this car in action some day!

[SSChef]

Originally Posted by Try2paz

cool car, love the Falcons! I saw the car when i stopped by that shop. It's beautiful! Any thoughts on doing some road course days?

Thank you, not sure. Maybe just auto cross for now.

[SSChef]

Originally Posted by WILWAXU

Great car! Love the updates.

thanks, its a body that is not customized much.

[SSChef]

Originally Posted by rustomatic

Thanks for being brave. This car deserves to be made right; by that, I mean fully functional. It's always such a pain to see how people address paint and cosmetics before addressing full-force functionality. It's good to see that you were at least not injured . . .

It's hard to believe that someone expected that wishbone thing to address lateral movement, especially with the force of those huge tires. It's also important to be suspect of suspension linkage that is wrapped with Dynamat. Every time we buy one of these things, there's always a new set of not-so-funny problems to address. I'm sure Ron Sutton has a million good ways to securely locate the quick change rear.

Here's to seeing this car in action some day!

If it had happened 5 min earlier it would have been very bad. It reminded me of the blues brothers, go through hell and the car falls apart a few seconds after they park it.

The car handled as my mechanic described as a "fat girl on a skate board". Another problem he diagnosed for me was a very strange vibration over 50 MPH, he believes the past techs were trying to get rid of it by adding weight and dampening. Dyna mat all over the links and driveshaft. He found the transmission was tail down close to 5 degrees. The rear was also down 3 degrees. He said in order to fix that the trans tunnel and cross member will have to be redone to give us the proper drive train alignment. His goal is 0 degrees on the trans and -2 on the rear end. Then adjust from there.
The car also rode very hard. VERY!!
We found 800 LBS springs in front and 500 LBS out back. Going to switch to 550 front and 200 rear. He will reduce the rear shock angles to do this.

Funny you mention Ron, he supplied a lot of the parts we used.

There was talk about doing a 3 link but we ended up with a parallel 4 bar with a frame mounted watts link. He has done a few of these with great success and its explained that its better on a 70% street, 10% auto X and 20% cars and coffee car.

Using Ridetech brackets, Ridetech coil overs, Spohn's narrow spherical's rod ends, Ron Sutton watts components, grade 8- 3/4"/ 5/8" hardware, All star performance links, QAI tube adapters and 1 1/4" .120 wall tubing and 3/16" custom brackets throughout.

I didn't like the gear noise coming out of the Williams rear so we are going with a Moser 9 housing custom fit along with 33 spline axles and true track 4:11 N center. Should be fine and quieter for me.


here is the preliminary fitting. He ended up putting in another pair of parallel 2x3 .120 runners to mount the lower links 2" out on each side to make the links sit out wider. This will put the coil overs closer to the tires. not sure why he wanted to do it but I am trusting his actions. He added a few details to sit lower if I go air-ride in the future.

Now that he has his info he can sit on his computer and go over his 4 link calculator.