I have a 68 Standard Coupe with 302, aluminum heads and no AC and I want to upgrade my suspension to modernize the driving experience for cruising.
My car has the classic front-end rake (nose up). I anticipate the rear to drop by 1” with 4.5 mid-eye leaf springs and the nose going down by 2” with the right coil springs and KYB Excel G shocks to achieve a level stance to the car.
I’m considering two front suspension options that are stock modernization upgrades and I will also incorporate the Shelby Drop.
Open Tracker: Upper Control Arms, roller bearing tech in the perches and lower control arm with Scott Drake 1" lowering Performance Coil Springs.
Global West: Tubular upper and lower control arms. Lowers and perches are roller bearing technology. However, GW is recommending their S-26 Coil Spring, which is 18" high, 560 lbs. per inch and is 3" drop from a 21" stock spring (correct me if I’m wrong).
Should I be concerned that a 3" drop might be too much/too low…drive the nose of my car too low that with the potential to rub or scrape?
In addition to my question above, if you have any insights on these companies and their products, I would be grateful to hear back from you.
I went the Open Tracker route for front suspension and am happy with the results. I am using Viking double adjustable coil overs as they have a lot of adjustability for mods that are going to happen in the future.
If you’re still open to suppliers I would like to suggest Street or Track. A complete selection of steering, brakes, suspension and more. Race proven and made in the US. Shaun, the owner, is a great guy and very VERY knowledgeable with vintage Ford products.
I’d suggest that you reach out to Shaun at Street or Track and talk to him about your plans, budget, expectations. He can help guide you through the +/- of the various bits. He was very helpful to me.
I understand that Open Tracker’s owners-John and Shari-recently sold the business. I don’t know if the new owners have the depth of knowledge they did.
Thanks! I’m really happy with my car and as a result, just through a bunch more money at it!
My experience on the Cougar as well as my fleet of Subaru’s (autocross-Koni and Bilstein) and my Dodge Ram diesel pickup (Fox remote reservoir), is that shocks are crucial to how the vehicle behaves on the road. They control the vehicle motion while underway both in low speed and high speed situations. Don’t go cheap as you get what you pay for!
You’re welcome. Glad to offer my opinions. Not a lot of folks here now seem to do much beyond OEM and upgraded OEM type bits. That’s cool but not what I wanted to do.
I do have a bunch of my build pictures on a couple of threads here. I added a lot of pictures to them both.
An inexpensive first option is to do the Shelby mod. I did that to mine and the rake issue disappeared. I’m running 16" wheels and tires and the height is great. I’d be concerned lowering it more.
Yes! The profile of your car is what I’m trying to achieve and the Shelby drop is part of the plan. I currently have P225/70R14 BFGs on my car. So, what you’re saying is, if I go up to a 16" or 17" (max tire) with stock springs, I will close the gap and achieve the stance?
I have heard good things about both companies, but have personally only used Global West products. Global wests tech guys are good so I would just ask them about your concern. My guess is that the spring is stiffer so it wont actually drop it 3 inches, but i would talk to them about it.
Ronmanny - sorry for the delayed response. I’m running the Scott Drake wheels on my car - the offset is fine with the tires I’m running (215/60 16). I believe wider tires would work as well. I went with these tires before these wheels. I believe these are a 4.5" backspace.
I had some fox body offset wheels before with spacers and wider tires were a problem so I stepped down to these. Finally getting tired of a limited turning radius on one side, I finally swapped the wheels out to these and I have no issues. The tires are plenty wide.
