Front Suspension & Brakes
Bob Lacey of Vintage Wheels helped specify/source my front solution. He’s a wealth of knowledge and a real gentleman! He and Travis from Shell Valley, were very helpful with product/tech support during this phase. With my MII front and chassis configuration, wheel offset alone wouldn’t resolve clearance issues and leave room for the outer Cobra wheel/spinner look to be maintained. So we converted to 1" shorter, tubular control arms. Also upgraded to double adj QA1 coilovers & 500 lb springs for adj and ride quality. I believe the prior springs were 375 lb and not sized for the 460 engine.
Upgraded the front brakes to Wilwood 12.19" 4 piston (Dynapro Dust-Boot Big Brake Front Brake Kit) for existing 15" wheels. All fit well, no rubbing with a .09” Wilwood spacer I used. Driver side caliper had a hairline rub located with stethoscope at one point in the rotation without the spacer. It was an area on the caliper I can easily file down slightly and go without a spacer. I decided to use the spacer and downsize the tires one size to ensure ample inner wheel well tire clearances, which worked well. If I later find more than ample clearances given my driving, I have the option to remove the spacer, file that point and upsize tires. Yet the steering seems very natural with these tires and they do sit nicely at/inside the fender. Bob Lacey’s specs achieved the maximum rotor size given the existing wheels, and the properly sized control arms for locating the wheels, a couple major objectives for this phase.
I rotary sanded the control arm spacers for bolt fitment. Welded in spacers (three per side) and gussets, with mobile welding help (I was the ‘hand’). Eliminated strut rods, allowing removal of frame mounting flange by cutting/grinding. This restored the natural beauty of the curved 4" tubular frame (see in photos), and freed up space. Loosened & pushed the radiator out of the way to get the lower control arm mounting bolts in. Along with the new braided brake flex lines, I replaced and bent one new chassis hard line. Due to the shortened control arms and proximity to steering bellows, I replaced the brake kit's straight chassis fittings with 90 degree fittings mated to shorter 14" flex lines.
Studied many solutions for fastening, torquing, greasing, tooling, aligning, etc. Found the Wilwood and QA1 instructions and support very helpful. Cleaned, repaired and re-undercoated the front wheel wells. Figured my grease type and grease gun storage solution. Five gallon bucket with garbage bag liner with gun triggers hanging over edge. Standardize chassis grease on Lucas Red 'N Tacky #2, all prior driveline drips stopped (thanks to one of the Dan’s on the site’s prior post on that). Once final ride height was set, I loosened the control arms, bounced car to re-align bushing orientation and reduce tension, and re-tightened. For cotter pins I used a technique I liked from helicopter maintenance blogs as per the photo.
Reduced 3 front tire sizes (245 to 215) on existing rims and added 0.09" Wilwood spacers. This reduced tire bulk bringing them in further, created fuller round gap to fender, and left ample space inside wheel wells. Gained much functionality and visual tire to fender spacing up front. Compared to before, this lowered the front significantly, gained lock to lock steering without hitting inside on either side, no more outer fender rubbing, and maintained acceptable ground clearance. In short, much improved functionality, improved tire/fender gap, and a much perkier stance.
Before photos
After photos
More to come soon...Brent