As you guys may remember, my car is missing the engine cross member. Ill be buying on next week, and installing it. Can somebody show me a picture that shows where exactly it bolts up??? also, im worried about it not lining up. I already know the lower part of the car is spreaded out, since my front wheels look like an A and no alignment is helping it. Im figuring and hoping it's because of the missing brace. How im i going to get the car back in? maybe strap a come a long around it, and squeeze it?

 

If in fact the front frame arms are splayed there are a couple of things you want to do.
This is going to sound a little strange, but... lift the front end by the engine, until the front wheels are just touching. then if necessary, use a come-along to squeeze the frame together. Don't forget the tapered shoulder bolts. bolt the cross member in remove the come-along then lower the car down.
The majority of the weight is the engine, by taking all the engine weight off the frame it will come back together easier. You may need to loosen and retighten the engine mounts once it's back on the ground. According to the service manual if you measure across the chassis from center to center of the sway bar mounting bracket holes you should get 24.92"
HTH,

Scott

BTW: If it helps you out, I've got a used one in great shape you can have for $20.00 plus what ever the shipping cost is. But instead, why not make one? You could make a sweet one that would also attach to your LCA brackets for not much more than $20.00. That would not only look sweet, but would work even better than a stock bar. Make it nice enough, and you might even be able to sell a few and earn some money for more car stuff. I can give you the stock measurements, and you could work from that.

 

what year is your car? i just added a TCP rack to my 64 1/2 coupe and i have the crossmenber sitting here if you need one

 

It ties your front frame rails together, so you should have the holes already in your front frame rails. Pic #1 is the driver's side, and pic #2 is the passenger side.


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[IMG]local://upfiles/10034/3AD900CCCB4D4CFBB86C32B13AA84574.jpg[/IMG]

 

soaring, do you have a picture of the whole thing? Id like to put one of these or something similar on my comet and Im not sure exactly how it goes. BTW I picked mine up at a swap meet for $1. The guy had a stack of them.

 

My camera is not the best, nor is the picture, but here is my front end after being rebuilt in August. Crossmember runs right behind the oil pan.

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Thanks Everyone. Hey Scott, Ill buy yours from you. When you mean in great shape, you mean, not bent or out of shape or anything right? To answer your other statement Scott, im not much of a fabricator, and i dont have the tools to do it. I have alot of tools, just not that kind. I guess you dont have the bolts with it do you? Jamisan, my car is a 66, just for your knowledge. thanks Glen for the pictures, im going to go look for that right now. thanks again everyone.

 

i measured my car as What Scott said, and i got close to 25 and 1/2 inches, so my frame is off. I didn't look for the holes though. I must ask, I was assembling my 67 ford truck today, and have lost some important turn signal/steering column parts. Does anyone know where i can find these parts? They are the weird little square head bolts, and some small screws. I've checked LMC truck, Mac truck parts, and Dennis-carpenters. I dont know of any others.

 

Well, scratch mine. I just cleaned off some of the 40 year old crud and found there is a dent on the drivers side vertical portion of the tube. It's more than just superficial. I'd look around to see if you can find a good one. Sorry about that, I didn't notice the dent before. This one is going in the scrap pile.
I think the cross member is the same for all first gen Mustangs, so Jamisan's may work. None of your friends take metal shop do they? Or maybe one of your buddies works at a car repair shop? Fabricating a nice one would be very easy.
I am re-using the original bolts for the rack install. NPD has those available, at least last time I checked they did.
For the truck parts try NPD. They have a whole section now for truck restoration.

As close as the strut support braces are to the sway bar frame brackets, you may be in for a bit of a fight, if your frame is really out that far. It's not going to want to come back in without doing something with the strut braces. I'd swing by a body shop and ask for their opinion before going too far with this. It is also going to be important to get each side to come in the correct distance. For that you are going to need a lot more frame measurements.

Good luck with this,

Scott

 

Ah, CRAP. Well, When i get a brace, ill see how far it's off, and see if i can do anything with it. If i cant, ill have to take it somewhere. It's probably off, alittle less then a 1/2. Would this cause my wheels to be off alot? Because i've just looked today, and my steel is showing through the tire it has worn so badly on the inside...... and i have to drive this car for another three weeks before i cna get some times.... Ill just have to rotate them. and pray.[:'(]