Ford_News
03-21-2013, 01:50 PM
Filed under: Aftermarket (http://www.autoblog.com/category/aftermarket/), Budget (http://www.autoblog.com/category/economy/), Performance (http://www.autoblog.com/category/sports/), Hatchback (http://www.autoblog.com/category/hatchbacks/), Ford (http://www.autoblog.com/ford/), Humor (http://www.autoblog.com/category/humor/), Specialty (http://www.autoblog.com/category/special-limited-editions/)
Solid axle? What solid axle?
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2013/03/ugly-horse-irs.jpg (http://www.autoblog.com/photos/project-ugly-horse-1989-ford-mustang-lx/#photo-5751576)
I was fully prepared to embark on a seven-day journey down a rabbit hole of broken bolts, internet hearsay and consternation.
This should not have gone this easily. Having a long and checkered history of simple projects punctuated by much wailing and gnashing of knuckles (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/28/how-not-to-buy-a-project-vehicle-the-tale-of-the-1975-internati/), I was fully prepared to embark on a seven-day journey down a rabbit hole of broken bolts, internet hearsay and consternation when I finally decided to lay hands on the '89 Mustang with the goal of relieving the car of its stock rear axle. Instead, it took less than a full morning's worth of work to carve the old 7.5-inch solid axle from its moorings and mock up something, well, different.
You see, after my enablers friends at a local Ford Mustang (http://www.autoblog.com/ford/mustang/) salvage shop made mention of how easy it would be to plunk an independent rear suspension from a 2004 Mustang Cobra in the ass-end of my decrepit hatch, I became consumed with the notion. Sure, anyone with half a lick of sense and the synapses necessary to fire off a Google search will tell you the stock hardware can be made to handle quite well with a few modest modifications, but the IRS held a number of unique appeals. Chiefly, the conversion actually made financial sense.
Listen, you can't give me any look I haven't seen from my wife on a weekly basis for the past four years, and sheltered as I am from the glare of your skeptical eyes, I'll expound on the dollars and cents argument for gracing my $400 car with more than $900 worth of engineering.
Need to catch up on Project Ugly Horse? Catch up on all the earlier posts here (http://www.autoblog.com/tag/ugly+horse/)!Continue reading Project Ugly Horse: Part VI (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/)
Project Ugly Horse: Part VI (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/) originally appeared on Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com) on Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.mnfords.com/rss-term-of-use/).
Permalink (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/) | Email this (http://www.autoblog.com/forward/20512053/) | Comments (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/#comments)
More... (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/)
Solid axle? What solid axle?
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2013/03/ugly-horse-irs.jpg (http://www.autoblog.com/photos/project-ugly-horse-1989-ford-mustang-lx/#photo-5751576)
I was fully prepared to embark on a seven-day journey down a rabbit hole of broken bolts, internet hearsay and consternation.
This should not have gone this easily. Having a long and checkered history of simple projects punctuated by much wailing and gnashing of knuckles (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/28/how-not-to-buy-a-project-vehicle-the-tale-of-the-1975-internati/), I was fully prepared to embark on a seven-day journey down a rabbit hole of broken bolts, internet hearsay and consternation when I finally decided to lay hands on the '89 Mustang with the goal of relieving the car of its stock rear axle. Instead, it took less than a full morning's worth of work to carve the old 7.5-inch solid axle from its moorings and mock up something, well, different.
You see, after my enablers friends at a local Ford Mustang (http://www.autoblog.com/ford/mustang/) salvage shop made mention of how easy it would be to plunk an independent rear suspension from a 2004 Mustang Cobra in the ass-end of my decrepit hatch, I became consumed with the notion. Sure, anyone with half a lick of sense and the synapses necessary to fire off a Google search will tell you the stock hardware can be made to handle quite well with a few modest modifications, but the IRS held a number of unique appeals. Chiefly, the conversion actually made financial sense.
Listen, you can't give me any look I haven't seen from my wife on a weekly basis for the past four years, and sheltered as I am from the glare of your skeptical eyes, I'll expound on the dollars and cents argument for gracing my $400 car with more than $900 worth of engineering.
Need to catch up on Project Ugly Horse? Catch up on all the earlier posts here (http://www.autoblog.com/tag/ugly+horse/)!Continue reading Project Ugly Horse: Part VI (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/)
Project Ugly Horse: Part VI (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/) originally appeared on Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com) on Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.mnfords.com/rss-term-of-use/).
Permalink (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/) | Email this (http://www.autoblog.com/forward/20512053/) | Comments (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/#comments)
More... (http://www.autoblog.com/2013/03/21/project-ugly-horse-part-vi/)