Christmas in July – More Fantastic Parts (and more to come)!

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and almost none of it had anything to do with hands-on work on my Boss.  However, I am happy to say that significant progress was still made!

First and foremost, I was finally able to sell my Harley after a couple of years trying.  I had finally reached a point in life where it simply didn’t fill a need anymore and the funds (and extra space) it would afford could be much better used toward keeping my restoration moving forward.

With fresh funds available, I went about finally purchasing the coilover front suspension system as well as the majority of brake system conversion parts I needed.  To keep the blog interesting, I feed in small doses of my overall build plan and this will be another big hint as to how this car will be configured in final form.  Perhaps now would be a good time to admit this is also a “restomod” project as much as anything.

Street or Track Front Bilstein Coilover System

I have been scouring every shred of information I could find on complete Mustang coilover front suspension upgrades for several years now.  I found lots of variation in build quality and performance claims everywhere I looked along with huge variations in price.  After countless hours/days/weeks of research, I settled on a gorgeous kit manufactured virtually in my back yard from a company called Street or Track www.streetortrack.com .  Shaun Burgess is the owner and he is a downright pleasant and very knowledgeable guy who has a burning passion for Mustang performance.  For about the last year or so, I wore poor Shaun out with numerous email and phone inquiries on his offerings and he never failed to deliver the information I was looking for.  There is a lot of “bling” suspension equipment out there and a lot of crap as well and I am happy to say that the Street or Track coilover kit has plenty of _functional_ bling and exceptional build quality and performance.  In my opinion, the stuff is absolutely top-shelf and I am very happy with what I got for my money.  Once coupled with my Heidt’s 4-link coilover rear suspension, the handling of the car should be everything I could ever want.  Shaun even allowed me the option of picking up several pieces in "raw steel" so I could have an easier time applying the custom powder coat colors I have selected for my car.  Have a look here:

The Street or Track coilover suspension kit is a thing of beauty and exudes performance.  All of the pieces are well constructed and solid and every component is absolutely top-shelf.  Other than the usual "Shelby drop" upper control arm relocation, the kit is essentially a pure bolt-on modification.

Lower control arm is a beautifully fabricated structure with spherical bearing pivots and robust, screw-in ball joint.  Front radius arm mount can be seen just above the control arm, loosely assembled.  No more nasty, squishy rubber bushings with all the squeeks and groans that come with them.

Upper control arm is also stout and well finished.  It also includes a screw-in balljoint as well as spherical rod ends for pivots.  To the right is the rear mount of the front radius arm.

Street or Track Cobra Disk Brake Conversion & Stainless Brake Line Kits

Since the cat is a little farther out of the bag on my project, I figure no harm will be done giving a hint as to the braking performance upgrades I have planned for the car.  Again, I leaned to Street or Track for their beautiful and simple 4-wheel disk brake conversion kits to allow my Boss to be fitted with 1994-2004 Cobra front and rear rotors & calipers.  These brakes are a HUGE improvement over the factory Boss 302 brakes and offer astounding braking performance with ease of maintenance and parts availability.  I chose to go with a stock 70-73 Mustang drum brake spindle and hub assembly on the front for the cleaner look of the conversion hardware and (arguably) stronger spindle configuration.  Once installed, the entire brake system will look as if it were produced from the factory that way yet the performance will be absolutely modern.  In fact, with about 800 pounds less weight to manage over the lightest of the modern mustangs, the braking performance should be stellar.

The 13" rotors look absolutely monstrous in this photo and appear equally impressive in a side-by-side comparison to the stock Boss 302 brakes.  The Street or Track Cobra brake conversion kits are beautifully machined and everything is included to make the conversion.  I also opted for their adjustable proportioning valve as well as their braided stainless brake hose kit.  Nice stuff by every measure.