Well, I have to admit the suspension has been the most difficult, frustrating thing I've done so far. I took the advice of the people on the Mustang newsgroup and ordered my suspension parts from Mustangs Plus. I ordered their Magna street suspension kit and a front end rebuild kit. This allowed me to replace pretty much the whole dang thing (except for steering components).
To start with, the car had 14X7 wheels in front and 14X8s in back. This meant the front rubbed while turning and the rears stuck out too far. The backs didn't rub though, because they were a smaller profile. Obviously, these had to go, so part of the big expense of doing the suspension was going to be replacing the wheels and tires.
Although I would have loved a set of Cragar SS wheels and BFG tires, that was a little too expensive, so I went with some cheap chrome mods in a 15X7 and Cooper Cobra 215-60-15 tires.
I ordered the suspension parts from Mustangs Plus. After looking through their catalog I determined that their mid-level performance suspension was the one for me. After all, my goal is to have the Mustang handle as good as my previous car (a Miata) when I'm done with it. When they took my order they asked how I wanted the car to sit - level or raked. I wanted it level so they recommended I buy the mid-eye rear leaf springs.
I did the rear suspension myself in our garage. It ended up taking longer than it should have because I got a job offer in Vancouver WA while I was in the middle of it (I lived in Yakima at the time). The Mustang ended up sitting on jacks for two weeks while things got real hectic. When I returned from the job interview I had three days to reassemble the car before I had to report for work at my new job on the other side of the state. Unfortunately, the new front hangar bolts and U-bolts hadn't arrived from "Larry's Mustang and Thunderbird Parts". The next day my package arrived from them and they had failed to send the U-bolts (though not failed to charge me). I had to put the rear end back together with the old u-bolts. They finally came, but too late to help me.
So with the back end lowered and the front end stock, the car was sitting nose-high. After moving we no longer had a garage to work in, so I took the front end parts to Bob Brown Tires (in Portland, OR) and they installed them for me. They are great guys, and I highly recommend them. When I went to pick the car up it was still sitting nose-high! Worst of all they said the new sway bars didn't fit and they didn't know what to do with the shocks that came with the kit at all! They had installed a cheap pair of Gabriels in their place.
I measured the sway bars and called Mustangs Plus, and sure enough after looking on their computer they determined that they had sent me sway bars for a '70 and shocks for a '73. Also, they said the car was supposed to sit nose-high with mid-eye springs and suggested I return them for regular leaf springs if I didn't like the look ( that's not what they told me when I ordered them). Worst of all, they wouldn't just send me the correct parts and let me return the wrong ones to them, they wanted me to send my parts back first (even though some of them were on the car)! I wasn't able to pull off my leaf springs and leave the car sitting on jacks while we swapped springs, so I ended up putting the correct parts on my credit card, with the understanding that I will be paid back when I return the wrong ones. I thought that was pretty lousy customer service, considering how much I spent and that it was their mistake.
This is all pretty frustrating, because I figured that by buying from suspension "experts", this stuff would just bolt on and be right the first time. Every thing I have to rework costs me more money, and means that much longer before the car can be my daily driver again.
July 27, 1997
I had the new springs installed this weekend and the car is sitting much better now. It's rear is lifted up considerably higher, and it even has a hint of a rake to it. The picture is a little hard to see, because it was so bright out when I took it.
I also had the guys install the front and rear swaybars. I put on a 1 inch front swaybar and a 3/4 inch rear swaybar. The mechanics installed the rear bar even though it had a little interference with the exhaust on one side. He warned me about this before he did it, and I gave him the go ahead, figuring I would get the exhaust fixed soon. The car is riding considerably stiffer now, but after driving it a bit I determined that much of the stiffness was in the rear.
August 25, 2000
I was just looking over this page and thought it might be good to add a little update to it. The suspension was very stiff, but did eventually begin to settle in. The last time I drove it, it was riding pretty nice. It was firm, but much of the harshness was gone. It was pretty bone-jarring at first, but it turned out to be ok. As for handling performance, well, the car was never running long enough to find that out. Maybe now that this suspension has been swapped to my new '68, Deja Bloo, I'll get to really try it out.