Thoughts on the new CPP front suspension?

I droped my 67 off over there today. Let me first just say one thing. I am an idiot. I forgot to bring my digital camera with me. I'll bring it when I got to pick the car up and hopefully they will let me snaps some pics of the place for you guys.

Now that being said, I got to take a tour of the place and let me tell you guys that they have a very clean and organized shop. They make all of the suspension parts right there with quality materials. They also have an impressive show room.

I talked with Danny about some different ideas concerning the suspension kit like the spring perch as well as the Shelby/Arning drop and coil-over setups. I like the way that Danny thinks. He builds for reliability and drivability.

As far as the upper arm goes, it is geometrically the same as a stock A-arm except it is 1/4" shorter. This difference can be made up with shims. I can't remember if he said the shims are included in the kit or not. The reason for shortening the arm is because of tire clearance issues with the quarter pannel. Puting the 1/4" shim in returns the arm to factory positioning. The ball joint in the upper arm is a stock Mustang 4 bolt ball joint and can be replaced if it wears out with a standard ball joint. With regaurds to a 1 1/4" or more arm relocation, he said the arm should have enough travel in it to not bind the ball joint and that there most likely wouldn't be a need to use some sort of negative wedge kit to correct the ball joint angle. The A-arm assembly is constructed so that the pivot shafts can't unscrew themselvs. Danny said that this is a problem with some of the tubular A-arms that some companies make.

The plate that they mount for the lower arm helps to tie the front end together and reinforces the front core support. He told me they will also include smaller pieces of metal which will go on the top side of the core support to spread the load more evenly around the areas where the bolts go through.

One thing about this kit some people may not like is that it is neccesary to remove the housing/bracket that the strut rod is connected to. I'm not sure if everyone realizes this so I just wanted to say that if this isn't an area you are willing to modify then this kit isn't for you.

Danny showed me the mystery bushing material that he was talking about. It really does seem like some type of plastic. They buy it in raw stock form and have the bushings they want machined out of a solid piece of material. It appears to be a fairly strong material.

Interesting side note, I talked to him about an integral power steering box for our
Mustangs and he said that they have plans to make one. He said they would like to have it done by the time the next SEMA rolls around but nothing is for sure. They have a lot going on and don't know when they will be ready to start working on this.

I give these guys a big double thumbs up.
 
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nice :nice: , can't wait to see the pics. i knew you'd have to remove the strut raod bracket and that's not something i'm worried about since most original ones are pretty trashed anyway from hitting parking curbs and bottoming out and such, no biggie for me and repro's are available now for the 67-up cars too, so replacing them later is not a big deal either. i'll probably go ahead and buy a couple of new ones and stash them with all the original parts i pull of the car so i can put it back stock later if need be.
 
Actually yes. I was going to post earlier but I was busy until about now.

I called Danny up and talked to him. I actually called to get the milage since the insurance company wants to know what it is or they wont renew the policy. Pushy bastards.... Anyways, Danny was kind enough to update me on the progress with the car as well as tell me what the milage on it was.

It is a good thing they got a 67 and a 68 for testing. Starting in 68 the radiator was mounted off of the strut rods bracket. I think big block 67s also used this same style mount but I'm not sure. My 67 doesn't have these as I've put in a universal Norther radiator. They modified the plate that replaces the strut rod brackets so that it will have a place to bolt in a set of radiator supports. He told me that all of the 67/68 kits will come with the brackets and they are use as needed. He said you take the factory rubber out of the stock mount and put it into the mount they supply.

Apparently they have gone through multiple revisions for the lower arms and the mounting bracket. He said they are going to try to start working on the upper A-arm soon.

I had told him about some of my dislikes with the suspension on the drive over to drop my car off. He told me that when they took the car to the alignment shop they definately noticed my complaints. After puting on the lower arm kit and taking it over to the shop again, he said that there was a major improvement in the way the car was driving even before it was aligned. I'm excited to drive the thing home in a few weeks.
 
It is a good thing they got a 67 and a 68 for testing. Starting in 68 the radiator was mounted off of the strut rods bracket. I think big block 67s also used this same style mount but I'm not sure. My 67 doesn't have these as I've put in a universal Norther radiator. They modified the plate that replaces the strut rod brackets so that it will have a place to bolt in a set of radiator supports. He told me that all of the 67/68 kits will come with the brackets and they are use as needed. He said you take the factory rubber out of the stock mount and put it into the mount they supply.

Good for them -- that's why you test, test, test. It's the only way to catch things like that.
 
Interesting side note, I talked to him about an integral power steering box for our
Mustangs and he said that they have plans to make one. He said they would like to have it done by the time the next SEMA rolls around but nothing is for sure. They have a lot going on and don't know when they will be ready to start working on this.

I asked them a while ago and they had no such plans. Maybe they changed their minds our maybe they weren't interested in spreading rumours about parts that may or may not come.

I bet it would be a product that would interest many.
 
Ok, time for an update. Talked to Danny over at CCP yesterday and they are finished with the lower arm kit for the 67-68. They are having the final prototype powder coated right now and they are waiting for it to come back so they can do a final test fit and inspection before they go into full production. He told me it should be about 3 weeks before they are available for purchase.

As for the upper arm, they are waiting for a new piece to be finished at a machine shop before they try them again. He said provably about another week before they finish the upper arm kit and get it finalized. Most likely another month before the upper arm kit is available.

I talked to him about geting this kit up on the website. This is what they have on there now:
http://www.classicperform.com/NewProducts/2006/NewFiles/NovaSubFrame.htm#mustang

Anyways, I'm excited to drive the car and give a full report as well as bring a camera with me next time I'm there so I can take pictures of stuff for you guys.
 
I got my car back from CPP yesterday. The thing drives great. I'll write a detailed post on it later today depending how I feel. I'm geting my eyes check and last time they dialated my pupils it was worse then a hang over minues the nausia.
 
I got my car back from CPP yesterday. The thing drives great. I'll write a detailed post on it later today depending how I feel. I'm geting my eyes check and last time they dialated my pupils it was worse then a hang over minues the nausia.


are ya kiddin? we've been waiting for months and then you tell us you get it back today and say you MIGHT make a detailed post? are you insane? we don't care what your excuse is, details man we want details and detailed pics too...:D
 
Alright guys, I'm back from geting my eyes checked out.... the 5 was TERRIBLE today, traffic like you wouldn't believe at off peak hours. Luckly I'm not messed up too bad this time, just a headache.

Anyways I know you guys don't want to hear about my day, you want to hear about last night when I drove my car home.

First off, let me tell you what I had to begin with. All of my suspension is basically brand new, front and rear. My front setup were lower control arms with poly bushings/ball joint boots and welded cups for the sway bar links, upper control arms with poly boot for the ball joint, poly strut rod bushings, stock rubber spring perch, 620lb springs which were supposedly drop springs (I think I got shiped 620s that were stock ride height springs) and KYB Gas-A-Just shocks up front. So thats what I had before.

what I've got now is the CPP upper and lower arms with the same springs, same perches and same shocks.

So how does it drive now ? I am happy to report that the car drives much better. It feels a hell of a lot smoother on the same roads I have driven the car on with my stock setup. One of the major improvements that I've noticed is that when I was on the freeway with my stock suspension and I changed lanes, my car's front end would pull really hard when I went over the Botts' dots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botts'_dots) . With the CPP setup it doesn't do that at all. When I use to come around curves at high speed, on the throttle hard or not, and hit irregularities in the road like uneven road, pot holes or badly patched road the front end of my car would ALWAYS shudder really bad and usually pull depending on how hard I hit. This caused me to back off the throttle because it really felt like I was going to loose it when that happened. Now I get feeback through the steering wheel much closer to what I expect from my car if I hit irregular road and I don't really worry about it. It doesn't feel like I'm about to go spinning out of control and die. In fact, once I got more acustomed to the feel of this new setup I was confident in keeping my acceleration full on when hiting a bump in the road because the car still felt very stable.

Now that isn't to say that this setup is the end of the line. This isn't to say it rides like glass over bad road, there is still definately feedback through the steering wheel from the road, especially with my manual steering. I think that part of this is my rubber spring perch and I definately feel like some roller perches are in order here. Also, I'm interested in trying some lighter/shorter springs. I was thinking about cuting my springs to get the car to drop a little bit. I don't think I'll even bother trying to play with springs until I get the roller perches tho.

Here is a short version of what I think about buying this setup:
If you need to rebuild your front suspension and don't care about keeping the original style setup then buy this stuff as it will provably be about the same price or cheaper and it will ride better.

If you want to upgrade your suspension and get rid of the stock stuff, buy this setup because it rides better then stock and it is cheaper by far then the other aftermarket stuff out there that I have seen.

Also, the upper arm is optional. You can run a stock upper arm and just buy the lower arm kit so if your upper arms are still good you can just replace your lower arms and be on your way.

CPP is working on a coil over kit to go with this setup. They already have the kit finished for the Novas. I don't know how long it will take them to finish this setup.

Please feel free to ask me any questions. I'll post pics tomorrow. I need to park my Mustang back on the side of the house so I can jack it up and yank the wheel to take some good pics. These are going to be HIGH res pics taken with my dad's Nikon D80 and a nice lense. If you want some specific pics let me know and I'll take them.
 
sounds good man, can'tr wait to see the pics, i know what it's like to have to get your eyes checked out like that, luckily i haven't needed to have it done for quite a while though.

i would love to see as many detailed pics as you can get but especially the lower control arms and the front mounting bracket.
 
Well, I'm feeling better now but my eyes are still somewhat dialated. After I get the 67 parked into is usual resting place tomorrow, I'll yank a wheel off an go to town with the camera. I'll leave them high res and post links.
 
Alright guys, here is what you have been waiting for:
http://s88285182.onlinehome.us/

I took the car around the curve again today and I can't believe how well it drives. I've done a lot of work to my daily driver (2000 Mustang) and I can honestly say that with my basically stock rear suspension and no posi/limited slip of any kind in my 67 that it goes around the curves ALMOST as well as my daily driver which does have a posi rear end and a bunch of aftermarket goodies helping it out front and rear. I havn't tried taking sharp turns yet but there are a lot of things I wana do before then (like put my rear disc brakes on...).
 
looks like the upper ball joints need some grease...just FYI.

the system looks really good and i like it a lot but i think i'll be doing some welding on mine, specifically the lower arm cradle assembly to the frame, just in a few places for piece of mind, it doesn't have enough bolts for my liking, other wise i really like it.