I have been thinking about installing a mustang II front end kit on my maverick. I have looked at the hiedt's stuff and it looks really good. I will need to remove the shock and spring towers. Don't believe thats a hard job to perform. The kits are fairly inexpensive. Does anyone on the forum have experience performing a front end kit installation. I would like to get all the necessary items needed for the install so I have everything I need to perform the install.
i dont believe they are to hard, i want to do it on my mav or a mav in the future, so i am all ears on this one
I think Mavman did a thread on his, last year. Used an original MII front end, also had pictures, I believe. Was strictly a drag car though.
doing it for sure well i have a 4.6 mod motor and will not fit with the shock towers. I will be doing this in the next year or so and I will have to do it. I will post some pictures.
Do a search. I did mine with a stock crossmember, but with tubular a-arms. Only thing original is the cut-up crossmember and spindles. Rest is aftermarket. The track width is within 1/8" of original Maverick track width so that's not a problem. The problem lies in the fact that the original crossmember is about 2" narrower than the outside of the Maverick's frame rails. You have to remove about an inch per side and gusset it all back in the best you can then put the crossmember in from the bottom up and go from there. There are companies that offer just the crossmembers any width you want (Heidts is one) and you just use the a-arms of your choice....or use the stockers, but I didn't like the strut rods so I used tube lower arms that don't use the strut rods. If I had to do it all over, I'd just do a strut front and have ALL the clearance in the world. Then maybe a V10 to go with it. Heck with a 4.6....it's so darn wide and ugly, it just doesn't fit the Maverick, IMO. IF I were to do a Modular, it'd either be a V10 with a turbo or a 5.4 from a Lightning. BTW, I heard a V10 in a F250 the other day with duals..and it sounded pretty darn good. NOTHING like a Dodge V10..which sounds like a pissed off 8N tractor. Just keep in mind that welding in the crossmember and setting up the a-arms & rack are only the beginning. Then you have firewall clearance issues, steering shaft, brake plumbing, etc. Not a small job compared to doing a complete backhalf & sheet metal.
We have the Rod & Customs version in Tammy's car. Very nice to have a kit because all the hard work has been done for you. Steering to rack done, brake lines to original line done, custom motor mounts done, all the little bits a pieces done. I own a plasma cutter so removing the shock towers and lower A arm mount were very easy. you can use a die grinder to acomplish the same thing. I did not use the plasma around the frame though, I just used a sharp chisel and hammer to break the spot welds. I made marks on the upper portion of the frame, center line of the lower A arms as per instruction. This is the center line for the new cross member, tacked the cross member and upper A arm mount in. Then I welded it up using my Linclon 175t mig welder, .030 wire and argon Co2 gas.
