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Author Topic: 62 Galaxie questions  (Read 1086 times)
jgbrueck
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« on: February 12, 2008, 09:28:30 AM »

Kevin,

           Great site, I visit often to see updates.  Had a question or two on your '62 Galaxie, as I have a '63.5 that I'm slowly modifying:

1) What brakes are you running on the fronts (and rears for that matter) on yours?  I see they're aftermarket slotted rotors of some kind.  Are they on the std Galaxie spindle, or did you upgrade to a Granada spindle?   Reason I ask is that I've just ordered the Gearhead Cruiser tubular A-Arms as featured in 1 of your Galaxie updates, and I'm trying to see what brakes will work.  Baer and Wilwood need a Granada spindle to work, as well as several other brake options. 
2) With the new control arms and a 2" drop (either from spindle alone or spindle + shorter coil spring), what shocks/shock height do you recommend?  I assume stock-height ones are no longer optimal with a lowered suspension, just not quite sure which way to go...

Thanks!

Jeff Brueck
Gilbert, AZ
'69 Mach1
'63.5 Galaxie
'89 Firebird Formula
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Kevin O
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« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2008, 10:23:52 AM »

Hey Jeff,

Welcome to the site!

The front suspension on this car has been kind of a roller-coaster ride, to say the least.       We started with a Stainless Steel Brakes front disc conversion, but the kit placed the '67 Mustang style caliper on the front side of the stock spindle, and I believe it uses a Mustang style rotor with a spacer.     However, the front mount caliper means you cannot run a sway bar on the car, and I didn't like that aspect.    So I built my own caliper brackets and moved the calipers to the rear side of the spindles, and installed the sway bar.     The rear brakes are Stainless big-bearing Ford 9" to fit the rear axle.    I think they use a Lincoln Mark VII or T-bird caliper.   None of the brakes worked that great until the Hydroboost unit was installed!

We're still running the Gearheads upper control arms and rear sway bar, which is really a very nice piece.    We returned to the stock lower control arms because we had some ride height issues... it seemed that even with our 2" dropped Eaton springs, the tubular arms wanted to raise the car.     We sent the arms back to them, I don't know if they ever resolved it.

We run stock, cheap, Monroe shocks all the way around and the ride is great.    The stock shocks work fine with a 2" drop spring.   

Keep us posted... I don't have alot of time today, but I'll gladly work with you on more ideas later.

Thanks!

- KO

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Kevin Oeste,  V8TV www.v8tvshow.com
jgbrueck
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« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2008, 12:48:13 PM »

Thanks Kevin for the info - I'm just starting out my "build" on my '63, and I'm trying to make some worthwhile improvements slowly while still driving it.  Your info gives me something to think about...  My car is (only, and "for now") a 352 auto - I'm building it to be a nice cruiser I'm not afraid to drive to CA or wherever, take the kids to get ice-cream, etc, etc. 

Thanks again,

Jeff
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Kevin O
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« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2008, 01:50:44 PM »

Then I'd suggest an overdrive setup and a Hydroboost unit as mandatory upgrades.     They make the car a million times better to drive.    Keep us posted on the project!

- KO
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jgbrueck
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« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2008, 03:26:29 PM »

Kevin - Thanks for all the input.  I have a couple of more silly questions - sigh.  Sorry this is wordy...

               When I'm installing the Gearheads Cruiser products control arms (I ordered both uppers and lowers), I want to replace springs/shocks, and upgrade to disk brakes all at the same time.  For brakes, I'm contemplating Baers or Wilwood - in a lot of ways SSBC would be easier, but I really don't like the look of their calipers.  Small, thing, but I know it would bug me.  I have Baers on my Mustang and they work great!  In order to to Baer's, I have to switch to a Granada spindle - I haven't been able to get an answer out of the Gearheads folks - I assume I won't have any geometry-binding issues with the switch, but I'd really hate to buy $2K worth of brakes and find out I do.  Any thoughts?

              Also, on overall stance - if I go with the Granada spindles, that should get me a 1.5" drop in the front, so I was thinking of a 1" drop spring to get me the "right" stance.  I saw your comment on the lowers raising your car - not sure if it will do that on the '63, since the suspension is slightly different, but in your opinion, how's the math?  Am I forgetting anything?  I know FatMan Fabrications makes a 3" drop Granada spindle, but that almost seems too low, unless the control arms compensate a little.  I'm so confused!!

Thanks,

Jeff
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Kevin O
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« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2008, 04:27:19 PM »

Hey Jeff,

I once had a set of Granada spindles, but I wasn't sure about the geometry on the front end.    At the time, when you compared the Granada spindle with the stock Galaxie spindle, the Granada appeared to have radically different camber, and I wasn't sure it was the  right approach.    I also tried a set of '73 T-bird / Cougar spindles, with the lure of large factory disc brakes, but again, the spindle just didn't look like a good replacement.     It turns out that others have used the Cougar piece and have not been happy.

The Gearheads lowers elevated the car because their spring perch was higher than stock and thus compressed the spring more, lifting the car.   It wasn't a geometry issue... be sure to check and compare your lowers to the new ones.   I have some photos with measurements I took to show the people at Gearheads the difference, but they claimed the arms were the same.    I ended up sending them the lowers back.   

I don't know what to tell you for the brakes.    I'm not sold on other spindles replacing the stockers just to get a caliper to fit.    I think the best route would be to make some brackets to get some C5 Corvette calipers on oversized Mustang rotors, and use a Hydroboost.     Then just use a lowering spring and you're there.     The key to the rotor is the ring-spacer that SSBC sells with their kit.. maybe you could source the spacer from them, get the rotor part number, and then see if a larger rotor is available.     I modified my caliper brackets as I stated in the earlier post, which wasn't hard to do.   

What's your time frame, and do you have a welder, plasma, etc?

Here's another option, Scarebird Mechanical makes some caliper brackets (and the spacer) to complete a disc conversion using stock spindles, but the calipers they use are pretty non-sexy single piston GM stuff.    I've been leaning on them to make the brackets for C4 or C5 calipers, but I'm not sure they're going to...



You can see their stuff at:

http://scarebird.com/mediac/400_0/media/GXY~with~bracket.JPG

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