Kirkham Hubs on a Factory Five? Backdraft? etc.

[David Kirkham]

Gents,

Today I had a customer come by to pick up his car. He had a friend with him who is going to buy a Factory Five. He asked me if we could make our cool billet hubs for a Factory Five so he could have knock off wheels...I don't see why not. Any ideas from those out there who know more than I do? Is this something you guys are interested in? We would make them with the F1 safety pop-up's as well.

I imagine they would look something like this.

David

[David Kirkham]

Here is a close up of our F1 pop-up safety devise. The pin must be pushed down (it is spring loaded) to take the wing nut off.

[Cobra4Me]

That is a very neat idea David !

I am sure you will sell quite a few to the FFR guys !

[LMH]

I think the hub is great idea! (mostly because they would fit on my Hurricane too! ) The adapter could be made to press in to the T-Bird knuckle.
I tried to find someone who made them a little while ago but came up with nothing.
If made in a six pin, there would also have to be a front hub made too and I'm not sure how that would work with their spindle/brakes. I'm not that familar with their spindle. I couldn't find any hubs for Mustang II either which Hurricane uses but FFR uses later Mustang. Not sure if they are the same or not. Otherwise a five pin adapter would have to be used on the front.
Of course, the big question is going to be "how much".
Larry

[David Kirkham]

Here is a picture of the latest knock-offs we are making. They are billet aluminum. Notice the new writing on them! First car to have the writing on them was delivered today.

David

[David Kirkham]

I see you guys are already replying before I can even finish posting pictures.

First, I have to admit I know next to nothing with regards to Factory Five's. I only posted to see if there was more interest than just someone passing by the shop and it seems there is.

I have no idea on price as I am not really sure what to even make at this point. I have no idea what a FFR front end looks like.

David

[David Kirkham]

So,

I called the parts house and ordered what I thought was the front end parts for a 89 Mustang. I ordered the wheel bearings, hub and rotor. This is what I got.

I thought you guys used 5 lug wheels???

Also, notice I did get a 5 lug hub and bearing assembly--that is what they call the hub. I guess the parts house didn't notice the hub was already in the rotor! Oh well, what can you expect from them?

Now I am lost more than ever.

Help!

David

[LMH]

After thinking about it for a few minutes, the hard part for rear hubs would be getting the spline nut on. It would have to go in through the center hole of the hub and it's a good size nut. Takes a 36mm socket.
Larry

[Cobra4Me]

If that's the case, then it won't fit a FFR setup since FFRs use spindles with hubs just like the Newer Mustangs.

[LMH]

The FFR guys can upgrade to five lug by using different hubs both front and rear. Sergio could help with the proper parts more than I on that one.
Larry

[Cobra4Me]

79-93 Mustangs use 4 lugs,
1994-2008 Mustangs use 5 lugs

[Cobra4Me]

you can either fabricate adapters to bolt on existing 4 or 5 lug setups, like this:


or fabricate the complete setup to replace the spindle , combining the hub with the spindle, this would be obviously much more complicated and expensive in the end for the targeted customer.

[David Kirkham]

Sergio,

Which spindle set up is FFR going with right now? I would like to see if we can make this work at a reasonable price.

Anyone have a picture/description of the latest hub, spindle, and brakes on an FFR?

David

[David Kirkham]

Sergio,

I was looking more into a completely new hub that could be used on the existing spindle. That adapter stuff is really heavy and I am sure some of the guys would love to get rid of the weight.

Ultimately, we could make an entire hub, upright, bearing, Wilwood rotor, Wilwood caliper set up if we had to that would weigh 1/2 of the current set up.

This is just the exploratory phase right now.

David

[Cobra4Me]

it depends on the FFR builder, remember FFRs get built mostly by your regular person in their own garage.
so he/she can either choose to use 4 lug spindles form Fox Mustangs or 5 lugs setups from newer Mustangs,
I have done both.
Nowadays most people are doing the 5 lug setups, better geometry and more wheel choices.

[David Kirkham]

Sergio,

Does the newer stuff use a front spindle? It looks like it must. It looks like the hub assembly we got from the parts house slides over an existing spindle.

Our cars, for example, do not use a front spindle as such. Our hub and spindle are one piece.

David

[Cobra4Me]

If you could make the complete setup that would be sweet, there is a company already making Billet aluminum Upper and lower Control arms which are sold by a couple of distributors:

[Cobra4Me]

yes, it uses a spindle.
and of course there are differences between 79-93 V8 Mustangs to 94-96 V8 Mustangs to 97-2004 V8 Mustangs spindles

[David Kirkham]

That control arm looks suspiciously like the one we make!

Would people want the entire set up to just bolt on? What about all that donor talk?

David

[Cobra4Me]

well, the donor talk is just that, easy to get all your parts from one Donor car.
That is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you use a car that got hit in the right place at around 4K miles when new, which is my case, Parts I got off that donor (o3 Cobra) were brand new, I did not even got my hands dirty.
Many FFR builders are doing non-donor builds, they buy everything new, that's where your product will fit, even for many that want to upgrade their setups to a true Knock off style setup, if price is right you could sell lots.