Page 35


We can offer 2½" dropped spindles for your Unibody Ford stock suspension! They will accept ’75-80 Granada or ’73-77 Maverick disc brake parts, especially the caliper bracket which is only available from a donor car. Since salvage parts are getting more scarce, we also offer conversion kits that include the Granada rotors, bearings, and seals, and utilize either Granada iron parts, or Wilwood aluminum calipers, also saving unsprung weight for improved handling. You will run into a problem trying to use original style wheels, as the Granada has a larger diameter hub than the old drums. The good news is that there is a lot of excess material on the hub that can easily be turned down to fit. With aftermarket wheels, this won’t be an issue. If you can’t find them locally, we can supply all new Granada brake parts for $450.

The spindles accept all your stock ball joints and tie rod ends as is. Ford used many combinations of tie rod ends on the 6 cylinder Falcons and Mustangs, so we’ll need to know the year, engine, and whether you have power steering. Many people upgrade to the stronger V8 tie rod set, so that is important info as well. While we were building the fixtures for these exclusively Fatman spindles, we included the outer tie rod position drop that gets rid of some of the bumpsteer designed in by the factory back 40 years ago when skinny tires made good geometry not very important.

We do not make a line of parts beyond that to attempt to repair a front suspension designed for economy cars with 140 horsepower. We feel firmly, meaning no disrespect, that spending a lot of money on a fundamentally flawed design is kind of like painting a barn covered with rotten wood. Strut type suspension is ideal for the unibody/monocoque construction of these cars, and probably would have been used had it been in wide use back in 1959 when the ’60 Falcon grandfather of these cars was designed. These very pretty cars are being asked to do things far in excess of the original design parameters. Fat sticky tires used today can get you beyond those limitations faster than back in the day. Please see our Strut IFS kits on pages 29 and 30 for info on our approach to upgrading these fine cars.



Our close association with Airride Technologies has led us to adopt their Triangulated Four Bar kit as the next level of rear suspension for the ’65-’73 Mustang and ’66-’71 Fairlane. In fact, we did the trial fits for the ’71-’73 Mustang and “66-’71 Fairlane in our own shop. We offer the kit with a choice of Shockwave Airride, or with QA-1 billet adjustable coilovers for those who do not need the added effort to use a variable air suspension. Both systems include an adjustable shock rebound rate which allows you to tune the suspension dampening to account for variation in load and tight handling.

A very small bit of welding is required to add the upper control arm tabs to your rear axle housing, and final upper cage mounting. The tubular cage assembly contacts the unibody structure in a way that mounts the suspension and strengthens the structure. Check out the Airride and Goodguys websites to see how these suspensions hook up at the Streetkhana events!