Ok heres the issue. my mustang sits low and i have some nice size 17" wheels and tires. over the slighest dip or bump i rub all four corners on the fenders. mostly the front. so whats the best and cheapest way to fix this.

heres my variables.

front:
i have 245 tires on the front, go with a narrower tire, however the rim is 8" wide and not sure if this will fix it completely.
go with a heavier rate front spring, (however i dont know what weight to start at)

rear:
put in air shocks since i only need 1/2 inchor an inch mabe
or put in longer leaf shackles that i have laying around my shop. (free) but ugly

remember cheap and easiest way to do these mods.

 

Install new rear leafs to replace the worn out ones on the car. You appear to inches below stock ride height. If you put air shocks on you will ultimately ruin the sheet metal floor pans which will cost you more to fix in the long run. If you can afford $1200 in wheels and tires you can afford $300-400 for new spring in the front and back which is just about what it would cost to get new tires in the front.

On the front you should also lower the control arms and add -1 camber.

 

good suggeston but i was thinking more along the lines of getting new coil springs rated at 750lbs. yes very heavy rated springs, but this set from grab a trak is a cut to fit spring. so i know it will be high but i can cut coils off. (as of right now i can lift up on the front end and it will sit higher or if i push down on the bumper the car will sit lower) so they are definitly some soft springs.

then once i raise it about an inch, i will add air shocks to the back. since i only need 1/2 lift in the back. im sure this much lift cant hurt the floor plans for now then maybe in the long run i will redo it.

now i just need to research how to take apart the suspensions to get the coils out and rear shocks out. any ideas?

 

Air suspension is not the way to do it. It will jack your car up.

As for taking the suspension apart, get the "Mustang Restoration Handbook" by Don Taylor & Tom Wilson, and a Haynes manual for your car. I had never done suspension work, but those 2 books made it simple as can be (with some help from this site).

 

Quite honestly you do not need to go that heavy on the spring just to make the tires work. I have 245 40 17 on my 65 which has a much smaller wheel well and I don't even have my fender lips rolled. Updated (aka not worn out suspension) and an alignement are all you need on the front. You can start simple on the front with a new shock, shelby drop, and alignment. On the rear I'm going to stay with put a new 5 leaf in (or have yours re-arched) with new shocks. Both air shocks and longer shackles will have a negative impact on your handling negating any gains you got with the large wheels/lower profile tire. If money is that tight, put new shocks in the back too they will be cheaper than the air shocks and might be enough to help you scrape by until you can put the leafs on.

 

ok, what rate spring do you think i should start with. i have a more modern 89' 5.0 302 in it. how about the 560lb coils?

also any recomendations on what type of shocks. and if there are any universal ones out there, what size length,

 

Definately a 550-620 rated coil, 750 will rattle the porcelein off your teeth if you drive it every day, and cutting the coils on any spring just screws it up. And air shocks are just nothing more than a pneumatic shock, and will mess your stuff up. KYB gas-a-justs are a good shock, reasonably stiff, but still bearable for daily use

 

It's doubtful that Gas-A-Justs would be up to the task of properly controlling 750 lb/in springs, as that's somewhere around double the rate of the OE springs. As I understand it, when you start using front springs stiffer thanabout 600 lb/in in a car of around 3000 lbs you need the shocks to have more rebound damping for spring control but less bump damping.

dj - are your tires 245/45 or 245/40? There's about an inch difference in outer diameter between the two.


Norm

 

yea i think ill go with the 600 lbs coils. to start out with. as far as the tire size of 245/40 or 245/45 i cant remember right now. ill check it out when i see the car is person tonight.

im going to the englishtown swap meet this weekend, so ill be looking for these parts. hopefully i score a good bargain.

 

tire size confirmed 245/45/17 and 8" wide rims