I have a 56 fairlane club sedan, with a 390, c6, and 9" rear. I want to lower the front 2-3", have better handling, more space for exhaust, and upgrade the brakes. I looked into a mustang II, but I'd need to replace the entire front of the frame and would spend at least $2000 just on parts. I have a full front subframe and suspension from an 88 5.0 mustang. I'd still have to do the same work as I would with the MII, but larger brakes, coilovers etc are easier to find and cheaper. It would require cutting up the inner fenders and building a strut tower on each side. But with no upper control arm, I'd have a lot more space for exhaust. I would have this done by a local suspension shop, but wanted to run this by some people first. An internet search didn't turn up much.
Yep, Building a proper set of headers is easier and you can dump that five six right down on a lucky strike pack with the original suspension. How much lower do you really need to go?
Personally,I would not go to a unibody macpherson strut set up in that car. ( as much as I do like my 87 Mustang GT.) I'd be more inclined to do a modern Crown Victoria suspension swap. A lot of Ford pick ups are getting that done as it is more of a bolt on subframe type swap with R&P and good brakes. Plus the mod motors in the new Fords are about as wide as a Boss 429 so header clearance will be improved.
The problem is the strut towers rely on the stiffness of the unibody shell and even then sometimes need additional braces to keep them from flexing under load. Inner fenders on a '56 Ford are only enough to keep water out of the engine compartment, the weight of the nose rests on the radiator support. You'd have to weld up and unitize the whole car to make this work. Seems like it's work well beyond what it's worth when you could clip the frame with a conventional stub and not have those issues to contend with.
When I read these type threads for these type cars I always ask myself "what am I missing?". I have owned and driven a lot of old cars and trucks and have not yet thought that I needed to turn sharper or stop quicker. Drum brakes were good enough for your grandma! I get the lowering a little but as Benno pointed out that is possible and easy with what you have. Oh yeah, I forgot that I was going to quit reading these type threads... Don't take it personal hondakilla I just don't get it.
Granada disc brakes, Aerostar coils, 1 1/8 front sway bar, and a set of heavy-duty gas-charged shocks will take care of all your needs except for the headers . cost you about $500
headers won't be cheap . FPA should have something that will fit your application if you can't fab a set on your own.
Sent you a pm on your suspension mods for your headers look here:http://tiptopwebsite.com/websites/index2.php?username=colson43&page=4 headers are $369 READ the footnotes.
Modify your existing suspension - it will be cheaper and probably safer in the end. The MustangII suspension is designed for a light car, not a big-block full-size. Swapping in a late-model McPherson strut is definitely NOT the way to go - completely wrong idea. Good luck and show us some pics. Cheers.
Several years ago, there was a guy in the Tucson area that did a Fox Mustang front suspension, rear suspension, and even the dash and some of the interior with the EFI 5.0 in a '53 or '54 Ford convertible. It was painted some modern metallic color, and had ugly four lug directional wheels. It had great workmanship, but looked really, really wrong from about any angle, and was a shining example of "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should". It's a lot of work for something so inappropriate that drives like a 25 year old Mustang. -KK
Don't do it. I currently own and drive a 56 Customline. The front suspension is hard to beat as far as ride quality, and handling. If you want it lower, Ford Aerostar springs cost $80 bucks from Autozone and drop the front end 2-3 inchs. Although I didn't even spend the $80 bucks, I just cut my stock coil springs.
I did this exact thing to my full size jeep wagoneer drag truck (was featured in hot rod mag in 2006) and it has worked great, made a jig before I cut it out of my fairmont, used 1/4 plate for the towers and used the factory top piece attached to new towers and I c-notched the frame 4" to get it low, and the jeep does a 2 ' wheelie on a good launch.
Thanks for pushing me in a better direction guys. Now that I see that I can get headers for a reasonable price, I'm going to rebuild the front suspension. And now that I'm part of the 52-59 ford social group, I've found a lot more info.
Anyone doing control arm mods for the 56 Fords? I may sell a really nice pair of spotlights to help pay for interior. Anyone looking?
I'm still wondering why someone hasn't come out with tubular A arms for the popular coil spring 40's and 50's cars so you can bolt on later spindles and rotors or drums if you like and do a simple upgrade without cutting the car in two or in some cases having to spend the rugrats college fund to rebuild a stock front end with original style pieces. As far as swapping to disk or staying with drums I'd go with disks on any rig that a guy has to lay on his belly to look under the car. The guys who say different have obviously never followed a new 5 series BMW on I 5 through Seattle in rush hour traffic with no extra stopping room and no escape route due to being boxed in by traffic on both sides. If you are going to drive them in the real world they need to be able to stop. It might not be so critical out in the Texas pucker brush where you have a lot of room to play with.
I know a guy who ruined a pristine '49 Ford Business coupe trying to install a front clip from an '04 Mustang. So no, DO NOT ATTEMPT!!!
I'm not going to. I'm going to rebuild the stock front end, add disc brakes and lower it with aerostar springs. I might add a sway bar, since mine doesn't have one.
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