Here are the new pieces installed...
Here are the new pieces installed on our '69 Mustang subject car. While not as radical as a coilover setup, the Blue Moon and Global West pieces are a huge step up from the factory suspension bits. If you want to be on the path to a good-handling vintage Mustang street car, these tough-as-nails components are about as good as it gets, short of going to a more expensive coilover system.
For at least the past 10 years, various manufacturers have been producing suspension parts for vintage Mustangs that are much better than the original components. Several areas have been addressed, including strength, suspension geometry, adjustability, and more.
Best of all, many of these items are virtually invisible to the casual observer, which is the case with the front upper and lower control arms we're featuring here. Unless you peer inside the fender or have the car on a hoist, no one will know you've updated a daily driven vintage Mustang with suspension bits that take advantage of modern technology. We're all for anything that makes an old Mustang more enjoyable to drive.
Available from any of National...
Available from any of National Parts Depot's four warehouses, the Blue Moon Motorsports upper and lower control arms are built like Fort Knox. Marketed under the Control Freak name, several applications cover '65-'66, '67, and '68-'73 Mustangs. They're also available in the black powdercoat finish shown here or a polished stainless steel finish. The arms include Grade 8 hardware and are made from 1.050x.154-inch-wall seamless tubing. Equally durable are Global West's tubular adjustable strut rods (top) that allow for more caster adjustment than stock strut rods.
With that in mind, we checked out a set of tubular upper and lower control arms being installed on our '69 fastback project car. A pair of adjustable strut rods is also part of the mix. These parts are a major step up in performance front-suspension components that retain the original architecture of the '65-'73 Mustang front suspension. The next step would be to go to a full coilover system, which is slick but considerably more expensive than what we're showing here.
The Control Freak upper and lower control arms are made by Blue Moon Motorsports, and the strut rods are produced by Global West Suspension Systems. These suspension goodies and numerous other vintage Mustang parts are available from National Parts Depot, which has warehouses in California, Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina.
We've also established a new working relationship with another shop in the Los Angeles area that, among other things, specializes in vintage Mustang repair and upgrade work. If you're in the area, Don & Harold's Automotive Center is a worthy resource for anyone interested in professional help with early Mustangs.
We arrived at Don & Harold's...
We arrived at Don & Harold's ready to begin the installation and discovered the shop has a fully computerized alignment rack, which meant a trip to an alignment shop wouldn't be necessary. We began by unbolting the shock from the spring perch and upper control arm before raising the front wheels off the ramps of the alignment rack/vehicle hoist. This avoids having to contend with the shock being extended before separating it from the spring perch.
Unbolt the shock from the...
Unbolt the shock from the top of the tower by removing the three bolts. The shock then lifts out of the tower as shown.
Next, remove the dust shield...
Next, remove the dust shield inside the fenderwell, which is held in place with six bolts. This allows better access to the coil spring to facilitate its removal.
A spring compressor is required...
A spring compressor is required to remove the spring. You must know what you're doing here because the spring must be compressed enough to get it off the spring perch and out of the shock tower. The force of the compressed spring can be deadly if mishandled. While we've tackled this type of procedure before, it was nice to have seasoned experts at Don & Harold's handle it safely. Once the spring is adequately squeezed together with the compressor, it can be safely removed.
With the spring out, removal...
With the spring out, removal of the stock parts gets underway, and we begin by unbolting the upper control arm from the spindle as shown. Don & Harold's has compressed air, which is another advantage. Although the arms can be installed with handtools, the air-powered tools make the job move along faster.
After several strong hits...
After several strong hits on the spindle with a hammer, the spindle separates from the ball joint of the stock upper arm.
With the upper arm separated...
With the upper arm separated from the spindle, it can be unbolted from the shock tower. This involves getting a wrench on the nut on the underhood side of the shock tower and a socket inside the fender. It's a big help to have two people for this step--one to hold the wrench under the hood and one to unbolt the arm from inside the fender.
With all fasteners out, the...
With all fasteners out, the upper control arm is removed from the car.
You can go two ways here....
You can go two ways here. Either use new spring perches if required or reuse the ones on the stock arms. Ours were recently replaced, so they were in good enough shape to be reused. They were therefore removed from the stock arms as shown.
The Blue Moon upper control...
The Blue Moon upper control arms come with a pair of machined spacer plates that must be used with the new arms. They slip into place like this before the arm is installed in the car to prevent the tubular arm from hitting the shock tower.