By the way, if you're thinking about replacing the perches, consider getting rollers. They are pricey ($200) but the the cheap ones have a rubber sleeve and come set at the wrong angle to accept the spring. They won't budge. I tried prying them into position once installed but wound up cracking the UCA where they bolt on. It was an expensive lesson for me.

 

are you going with new lowering spring?? i left my shocks in place and then cut the spring into pieces and then unbolted the shock and took the pieces out...then new spring fit in place without compressing it at all

 

HOLY HELL! you dont need to take the outer shock tower cover off to remove the spring lynn!

i just replaced the entire front suspension on my '65 this winter and removed the coil springs with UCA & spring perch in place, fenders on and shock tower in place.

only thing i removed was the shock so i could fee the spring compressor down in the spring.

 

ill agree getting it back in will be easier. esecially if you have new perches as they dont come assembled in the right orientation, i ended up shoving a large pry bar between them & the UCA to rotate them on the bushing a little to make it easier to get the spring in (shock tower in place)


plus with it removed youd have a better view of the upper spring resting point.

 

how does that tool work?

the UCA is what keeps the spring compressed, if you remove it you have no need to compress it as things will go banging around and release all the spring force.

then how do you get it back in if you cant have that tool on with the UCA in place?

 

You're a lot luckier than I was. Then again, maybe my UCA wasn't in the best of shape. A pry bar caused cracks around the perch mounting holes. Maybe my stock replacements were tighter than yours.

 

It all depends on what kind of compressor you use. The one I used I had no choice, it was a big clamp type compressor, there is no way in hell you could have gotten the gizmo up in side without doing such.
Lynn

 

I always take the cover off to take my coils out. Now all I have to do is jack my car up and they can fall out.

 

Thanks to everyone for the information. By the time, the rear leaf springs arrived I had run out of spare time - so I ended up just taking the car to a local shop to have the front and rear springs swapped for the new parts we ordered. The new springs, shocks, and swaybar make it ride like a whole new car according to my girlfriend -- yet she raced my vette during the weekend (go figure).

Now to figure out about wheels and tires. Those factory wheels are just tooo skinny. Time to start searching the forum for recommendations about what will fit without requiring any modifications to the suspension or body panels.

 

Rims with a backspacing of 4.5" will fit.

We also have a thread about this kind of thing.

https://mustangforums.com/forum/clas...de-height.html