Picked my car up from the alignment shop this afternoon. I love the new front suspension and steering. The car drives excellent, almost like a brand new car. I love how smooth and straight it runs now. I want to thank everyone who helped me out with all the problems I had, I wouldn't have been able to get it done without the help, so thanks! Here are some pics of how it looks now. I like how low the front end sits now so next I will be lowering the rear to match the front. I will be dropping the car off to the upholstery shop tomorrow so they can put new skin on the seats and a new headliner in. I will post some pics after that is done too. Let me know what you guys think.







-James

 

sweeeet, the front looks badass. dare i say perfect. the back on the other hand....put those shackles back on ur truck plz lol

 

I know. I hate those damn things! They were on the car when I bought it and I can't wait to get them off of there. I am looking into what I should do about the rear suspension. The only thing I am sure about is getting Koni shocks for the rear to compliment the ones up front.

 

just get a leaf spring kit from mustangs plus, they will give you whatever style leafs you want, plus all the hardware (u-bolts, new shackles, bushings) without breaking the bank.

http://mustangsplus.com/xcart/produc...at=2124&page=1

i dont know anything about koni's cause ive never driven on them, but i can say i had to ditch my KYB gas-a-just in the rear (i have them on the front). the combination of 4.5 leafs + those shocks would have my rear end hopping all over the place driving on our ****ty downtown roads. i went with KYB GR-2s cause i heard they are soft and so far i like them.

4.5 leafs was stiff as is and adding a stiff shock made handling on craptastic roads a pain in the ***. like i would literally feel the rear end bouncing to the side, it was pretty bad.

but then again, if you live in an area that has nice roads, screw it and go with koni's of course.

 

That low and no rubbing? Nice! Definitely need to drop the rear a bit, glad you're already on it.

 

Makes me want to get my suspension done even quicker now, I won't be going that low though. looks good! I like the stance, but lifter shackles = bad. I'm in the same situation as you, I have lifter shackles on my car since I bought it, the only thing I've been able to do was most the leafs to the second notch to try to even it out a little and take out some of the 5" wheel gap... on your car it looks like you can drop it down to the 1st or second hole, it will be a simple temporary "fix" until you get new leafs and shocks.

 

Ditch those crappy slapper traction bars, too. If wheel hop is an issue, pick up a set of actual Traction Masters.

 

What exactly do those traction bars do? Is there more benefit than the gain? My dad's 428cj has them on right now, I know they were just a 70's way to go straighter basically, but I don't know if I should tell him to ditch them or not haha. At least he has factory staggered shocks... that's cool.

Sorry to derail thread slightly, I've just always wondered...

 

The idea is to limit axle wrap, which causes wheel hop. The bolt-on jobs do a poor job of it, and they mess with handling because they interfere with proper leaf spring travel. They're also entirely unsprung mass, which isn't a huge deal, but it doesn't help.

Traction Masters weld to the frame rails in front and bolt to the leaf spring perches in the rear. They prevent axle wrap without interfering with leaf spring travel. They also contribute much less to unsprung weight.

There are other options, like Cal-Tracs and Competition Engineering's Slide-A-Links, but IMO they're overkill until you get into big block (or big small block stroker) territory.