My First Mustang

It was in September of 1966.  I was 18 and had my first real job and I got my Dad to take me car shopping.  Man was I car crazy!  I still remember the red 65 Mustang we found on one used car lot.  It had a 289 with a 4 barrel, an automatic tranny and red interior; and only 9K miles.  I didn't really want the automatic, I lusted for a 4 speed,  but boy was it a pretty car!  A real Ford muscle car.

I didn't get the Mustang.  My father convinced me a Chevrolet Impala was eminently more sensible so I decided to be an adult and go conservative.  I always regretted it.

Later in 1967, I looked at a 1966 Mustang with the Pony interior.  A beautiful medium blue with a 289 and a 4 speed.  It was exactly what I wanted but I knew I would soon be part of Uncle Sam's establishment and the timing just wasn't right - nuts!

I joined the USAF in 1968 and for 4 years I was "government issue".  I still dreamed of owning a Mustang someday but just never seemed to have enough money or the right timing (or both) to pull it off.  I was married and the wife didn't care for "hot rod" cars and besides it was too small.  Yeah, I know, I was a wuss!

Time passed, I left the military and got a civilian job and settled down.  The Mustang dream never left me although I did manage to push it into the far recesses of my brain.  Then 1974 came and I went down to the local Ford dealership to see the newer, smaller Mustang II.  It was like a really bad blind date surprise!  Ugly with a capital Ugh.  OK, sorry if the '74 to '78 was your thing but I could not contain my disappointment with Ford.  I felt like something beautiful had just died (and it had in my opinion) and my heart was heavy as I drove back home.

I was in El Paso, Texas when I saw my first 1979 Mustang.  At least it looked like a Mustang.  I drove one and was impressed although 255 cubic inches didn't sound like much of a V8.  For some reason, I just could not convince myself to buy it.  Some how I knew it would never satisfy that instant desire I had when I saw the first Mustang in mid-1964.  The first car just looked right and I could not shake my unrequited love affair with the original; no, I had to have the genuine article.

My wife, bless her heart, came to my rescue.  "If you could find a really good original would it be OK?", she asked.  OK?  Are you kidding?  Then she showed me the ad for the '65.  It professed an all original Mustang with a 289, Auto, PS, PB and new Guardsman blue paint!  You want to guess my favorite Mustang color?  Wow, it sounded so perfect it was scary.  The convertible you see to the left was not my car - mine was a coupe but this is the correct color.
So, do you think I bought this one?  Yep, even with 95K miles and a rusty trunk floor;  I could no longer deny the dream. 

I had so much fun with the Mustang!  I put an Edelbrock aluminum intake and a Holley four barrel on the 289, I replaced the exhaust with full headers and some nasty sounding Flowmasters, I rebuilt the brakes and a hundred other little things.  There is something so satisfying about modifying a vehicle to make it better than it was.

Don't get me wrong, this was not a show-quality Ford muscle car by any means but imperfect as it was, it was my dream.  And dreams never die.  When I think about all the cars I have owned, the thing about the ones I loved the most was the bonding you get with the machine when you put your hands and creativity to work and it becomes more than a car or just transportation - it becomes a part of you and it truly is yours.  When you put your blood, sweat and tears into something it stops being a machine and it lives.  Why do you think so many gearheads give their cars a name?  (mine was not really inspired, it was just Ole Blue).

If you have read this far, I guess the moral of this little story is go get yourself a car (or truck) you can work on.  Make it into something unique by putting your stamp of creativity on it.  Make it better than it was.  Make it yours.  I promise you the rewards far outweigh the effort and in the process you learn things about yourself that make you a better person.  So, go turn some wrenches!

Lower your ride the right way!

So, you have the power train squared away and the paint is done, now you want it to look low and mean on cruise night. Look at the "before" picture above and to the left.  The car on the right has been lowered 4" in the front and 3" in the rear; looks mean, doesn't it?  Getting the right stance for the street isn’t difficult if you follow a few simple methods for lowering the ride height. We are talking muscle cars with stock suspensions here so I hope you aren’t looking for advice on a low rider.
I always like to go the simple route first so we won’t be talking about the expensive stuff here either, just some relatively easy mods to the stock suspension to drop the height conservatively so it looks good, rides good and doesn’t hang up on every speed bump in town. You'll find that a correctly lowered vehicle not only looks better, but will also provide much better road feel and have minimal body roll. Conversely, an improperly lowered vehicle will not be fun as a daily driver, and more importantly, it may be dangerously unpredictable on rough pavement. So if you've ever thought about dropping your Ford muscle car, read this guide to achieving a functional in-the-weeds stance.

Let’s start right at the most basic element of the suspension. The factory springs are a compromise meant to satisfy a wide range of drivers and ride heights of 60’s muscle cars were much taller than the new hardware on the road today. We’ll fix that! We have advantages today undreamed of back in the day. The aftermarket has lowering kits that provide you with all the components needed to drop the height in reasonable increments. Assuming you really want to drive the car on normal highways and streets, you will want to avoid getting too radical; usually 2 to 4 inches of drop make a tremendous difference in how the car rides, handles and looks on the street.

A discussion about springs is in order. Spring rates are generally rated in pounds per inch (lb/in), which represents the amount of force required to compress the coil spring by 1 inch. For example, a 200 lb/in spring will compress 1 inch under a load of 200 pounds. Spring load is the amount of weight that a coil spring can support at any given compressed height. A 10-inch-tall spring at free height with a 200 lb/in rate compressed to a height of 6 inches, would be supporting 800 (4 inches X 200 lbs per inch) pounds at that height.

A cheap alternative for lowering is to cut the spring. We are talking coils here; if you want to try this I suggest you make your cuts with an abrasive cutoff saw (a wet saw if you can get your hands on one) and only cut ¼ of a coil at a time until you are satisfied with the ride height. Never, ever use a torch to cut a spring and under no circumstances should you heat a coil spring to lower its height. The heat changes the metallurgy of the steel and ruins the spring. Cutting and reinstalling and removing and cutting and reinstalling is very tedious and time consuming but if you have a lot more time than money it can work if you are careful.

Safety tip: always use a safety chain when removing a coil spring – they have a tremendous amount of stored energy and can inflict serious injury if they are allowed to fly out unrestrained. Support the car with jack stands, use a floor jack under the A-arm to compress the spring, remove the ball joint and slowly lower the A-arm with the jack.

Leaf springs are a different case. Many aftermarket manufacturers make leaf spring sets designed specifically to lower the vehicle in precise increments and are a bolt-in proposition. Spring shops can also de-arch a set of stock springs to lower the car; a viable and cheaper option. Spacers are some times used to drop the ride height and are very cheap but beware that they can also induce wheelhop under acceleration because they stress the spring and create a lever effect in the spring action. If you use spacers, do not exceed 1” in drop.

We have stayed within the basics of the stock suspension and really only ventured into some very simple changes regarding spring heights to lower the car’s center of gravity, improve its handling and increase the road feel. For the cost of a few Benjamins and a few hours with the tools you can have just the look you want for cruising while creating a good handling street machine. Do your research, plan your mods and put that Ford Muscle Car in the weeds!

  


Shop for Eibach springs and spring kits at Tire Rack.
Shop for Hotchkis Sport Suspension at Tire Rack.