I'm looking to start workin on my 39 chvy coupe pretty soon, but the thing is, it has what i believe is a mustang 2 clip, but not aftermarket, looks like it came of a ford....it has rack n pinion and the original frame rails are still in tact. The thing that threw me off was the bolt pattern is chevy car. The problem i'm having is that the wheelbase is too wide for the front fenders, it looks wierd, but right now i have cragar skinny's on the front, and I know they stick out a hair more than steelies will, but the steelies i wanna put on won't suck in enough to make it look right. is this common? Is there an aftermarket A arm kit or something that keeps the geometry but moves the wheels in more? I'm at a loss, cause I need to get the wheels up in the fenders more which is impossible right now. I thought about having custom wheels made with an offset to suck the rim inward, but this might look like crap too, anyone had this problem before? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Dan I'm not sure how much room you need to fit your tire/wheel combo but Rod Garage offers A-arms 5/8" or 1" narrower. www.jimweimerrodgarage.com
you could have a Corvair front with pinto rack-that was the hot ticket in '75.................a MustII is correct width for a '39 and a stock ford crossmember -when trimmed away from fords rails is 1/4' from touching the stock '39 chevy framerail width.
If its a stock M II, should be narrow enough. Have one under my F-1 and its widened 4 in. I think the Chev bolt pattern rotors are only about $70..........OLDBEET
Kenny, I think your on the right trail here but on the wrong scent. Dan I think you may have an AMC PACER front end. They were very popular for a while and there are still some diehards out there. The dead giveaway is the track width. Stock Mustang II is 56 1/2" and with Ford Granada rotors it pops out to 58". It is very possible that someone widened a M II to do this but seems unlikely. If you were to post a picture I could tell you for sure what you have. As to what to do with it,,,,, well if it truly is a Pacer front end you are stuck. No one makes anything for them, period. I belive even replacement parts are getting difficult to find. At that point I would recomend removing it and doing a proper Mustang II conversion. You will be much happier.
[ QUOTE ] Stock Mustang II is 56 1/2" and with Ford Granada rotors it pops out to 58". [/ QUOTE ] He said he has a Chevy bolt pattern on the rotors, so he might hav the ECI "big" brake kit that spaces the wheels out about 3/4" each side. (I have this kit on my 52 Chevy, but that extra width is to my advantage on my car.) There are some rotor kits on the market that would space the wheels back in closer to stock MII if this is the case. I do agree that this does sound like the pacer front end, tho. Corvair is possible, but I'm really leaning toward the Pacer. If that is the case, I'll second the vote for replacing with a MII. As for the narrowed arms, I have never heard anybody that actually runs them say anything good about them. I'd shy away from them.
thanks for the help, although, now I feel like I woulda been better off not knowing....With my luck it would be a pacer front end, I will try and take pics, but not sure how soon I'll be able to get thm posted. If it is a pacer clip, could I get custom steelies made that would help? It handles well, stops well, so it would seem crazy to remove it if there was an alternative...The guy I got the car from told me over the phone that it had a nova/camaro clip in it, but I knew that it wasn't the case as soon as I saw it. The only other car I had a mustang 2 clip on, was my 46 chev pu truck, and it seemed really narrow. almost too narrow. Ok, so i will look into the possibilities of corvair or pacer, and see what i can come up with, Are there any characteristics that I would be able to use to tell one apart from the other, or that would tell me that I have a pacer clip for sure. I seem to remember seeing a disc on the clip that I believe is used to adjust camber....is this something helpful? Again, if anyone thinks that custom wheels would work, that would be good news, thanks, Dan C. oh yeah, i'll take some measurements when i get home
Man that extra large picture is driving me crazy............ Dan, I looked for some pictures for reference for you. Check these out since you can't post a picture of what you do have. CLICK HERE AND SCROLL DOWN
An easy way to ID the Pacer[if it is]....the Calipers are MOUNTED AHEAD of the spindles instead of behind like a Must II......and the rack clamps on on one side and bolts on the other where the MustII has two or three big bolts holding it on............
I'm working on a 39 cpe right now with a MII front end. It looks like a Chassis Engineering crossmember with all the factory pieces bolted to it(A arms spindles etc). The fit is fine, like it were made to it. Look at it closely, the other posts might help ID the make of the front end, 'cuz it doesn't sound like a MII. Good luck.
BINGO, looks like i asked the right guys, yup, I tooka a closer look, and I think I gots me a pacer clip, yikes. also found out that black widows like pacer clips, and i only parked it there a couple days ago. so now I think my first trry is gonna be ordering some custom wheels from wheelsmith or something. I need 15" with the nips on the outside of the center ring for my caps, and I need to figure out what offset I need to suck the wheels in without clearance problems to the suspension, it might be enough to keep me from having to change the entire clip, like I said, it drives well, otherwise i wouldn't hesitate to yank it. If anyone has any other ideas of how I can make this front end work, please let me know, I'd rather spend the money on things other than the front end if possible, thanks.
They really drive prettyt nice- its just the parts thing and they are wide. It'll take some pretty NEGATIVE wheels- a friend has a 38 chevy sedan with one -I believe he is running a custom set of steel wheels[Rallys?]...still looks wide.
Dan, I had a similar problem on my '34 Olds equipped with a Nova front end. The Nova was just to wide for the car with the standard offset wheels. It bugged the crap outta me. In looking around for a reasonable solution. I found that I could use wheels designed for front wheel drive cars. They have just the right negative(?) offset to suck the wheels back under the fenders. Be careful if you decide to go this route that the tires and wheels don't hit any part of your suspension/steering. It worked for me and was a thrifty (don't say cheap) way to solve a vexing problem.
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