Restomod has been something of a renaissance for vintage Mustang owners. Twenty years ago, the trend was more toward restoring classic Mustangs to factory-original condition, with fierce competition for trophies and national recognition. When concours judging and showing became too stressful, some shelved their reproduction Autolite Sta-Ful batteries and parked their trailers to cultivate a different approach to the Mustang hobby. Refreshingly, they started driving their Mustangs, following a new-yet-old trend we've come to know as restomod.
As a way of describing tastefully modified classic Mustangs, the restomod name stuck, and the sensation has grown ever since. A lot of new products have come out of the restomod movement over the past 12 years. One of those products is the Street Force suspension system from Ron Morris Performance (RMP), now available from Mustangs Plus, a company that has been at the leading edge of the restomod movement for more years than the word "restomod" has been around.
Last month, we installed a rack-and-pinion steering system on Laurie Slawson's '68 Mustang fastback. At the same time, we installed the new Street Force tubular suspension system from Ron Morris Performance, a company specializing in new and innovative ways to improve classic and late-model Mustang performance.
The secret behind the Ron Morris Street Force system is mechanical freedom, something not found in early-Mustang factory suspension. The Street Force system has fully articulating control arms and strut rods, which enables it to "give" in ways a stock system never could. When you add adjustable coilover shocks, the Ron Morris system gives your classic Mustang a whole new feel and attitude.
This is the Ron Morris Performance...
This is the Ron Morris Performance Street Force suspension system, a tubular design with fully adjustable Heim joints instead of shims or eccentrics, making it more adjustable than a vintage Mustang's factory suspension. These joints are designed to adjust in any direction and are race-proven. They shouldn't lose their adjustment.
Laurie's stock front-suspension...
Laurie's stock front-suspension system doesn't yield the kind of performance she can expect from the RMP Street Force. For '67-'73, the lower control-arm camber adjustment comes from a fickle eccentric that typically never stays put. Hit a bump and you lose camber adjustment. The same can be said for strut rods, which control caster adjustment. Rubber bushings wear, which also changes caster.
To start the disassembly of...
To start the disassembly of Laurie's front suspension, Derek at Jimmy's Broadway Automotive in Tucson, Arizona, loosens the ball-joint studs after removing all of the cotter pins and castle nuts.
Once all of the ball joints...
Once all of the ball joints are disconnected, Derek grips the lower control arms and removes the eccentrics, which adjust camber on '67-'73 Mustangs. Shims do the same job on the upper control arms for '65-'66.
Because Laurie has short 620...
Because Laurie has short 620 coils on the upper arms, spring removal is easy. Derek pops the spring out carefully, then removes the upper control arm. You can't do this with a stock Ford spring because the length is too long, requiring the use of a coil-spring compressor.
Before installing the upper...
Before installing the upper coilover-shock mount, remove the stock coil-spring mount plate. Three spot welds are drilled out with a spot-weld cutter, and then the plate can be removed.