Full frame in a classic mustang?

[mustang6788]

I happened to see this on ebay for sale they want about $10,000 for the kit with rack and pinion ect. Never seen anyone make a frame kit for a classic mustang. The frame appears to be all boxed and cross supports and comes with good brakes. Would a mustang body with the subframes removed and a few select mounting points still flex being as it was never designed to be used without some kind of support? New to me but I would like to see what it is like intstalled in a classic mustang.

http://www.precraftusainc.com/projectspage3.html

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mustang-full-frame-67-68-69-70-Aftermarket_W0QQitemZ190003301844QQihZ009QQcategoryZ6236QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Red Barchetta]

The first clue as to why this is a bad idea is where they say "Bolts on to your Mustang body!"

If it were welded in, then I can see an improvement in torsional rigidity, but with a huge weight penalty. Nothing a good pair of SFC couldn't greatly improve at a fraction of the weight penalty. The only other possible improvement would be in the front and rear suspension, but I don't know enough about the design to say either way. There's a similar discussion on Corner-Carvers about someone who's making their own frame. This would be a good comparison.

 

[xoxbxfx]

Looks like a PITA to me... they make it sound easier than it is....

You have to replace the wole frontend sheetmetal, cut out the existing front frame and torque box, some way to lift the car... For 10k, Id have the whole car blasted, go with a coilover setup in the front or MII and then an IRS or something in the rear. Lots of work

 

[unluckyengineer]

I agree it just seems like the appeal of a frame car comes from having a body that you just set on there and go corvette style. You can weld in subframe connectors and have the same effect. just seems like for four or five grand you could get a much better setup with similar handling and braking characteristics. I don't know though I am a unibody man I try to stay out of the frame cars...

 

[rbohm]

for $2300(the price for a bare frame), you can install subframe connectors, a martz four bar rear suspension, and upgrade the stock front suspension, and likely have some money left over. the basic unibody design, while a bit too flexible for racing, is a good base for performance modification. adding subframe connectors is not a big weight penalty for the added stiffness you get. but adding a full frame is going to be a big weight penalty for the advantages of a full frame car. a reasonable idea in theory, but in practice, no.

 

[Bullitt]

that's some really really nice work there. looks like some fairly high quality circletrack parts.

i hardly think the intent of that setup is for a "street" car, but it's definetally flawed as a racecar too. i agree that the "bolt-in" installation is really flawed, but the basic concept is good. most of the true racecars (and basically all of the winning ones) i've seen are basically unibody cars with tube front and rear ends and a cage that ties them together. granted this is a little different from what is basically a stockcar chassis minus the roof/cage that is bolted to the bottom of a normal body, but it's the same basic idea.