Swap Your Six For a Great V8

Shown here are the new upper and lower control arms from CJ Pony Parts. Included were right-angle grease fittings which allow the control arms to be properly serviced on the car. New coil springs and perches are also shown.

This new 1-inch-diameter front antisway bar will really help minimize body roll. It's almost twice the size of the OEM bar. It's a complete kit, so all the needed mounting brackets, bushings, and links are included. Also shown are new steering components, including inner and outer tie-rod ends, center sleeves, and V-8 idler arm.

Required to complete the steering conversion for V-8 use are a heavier drag link and pitman arm. These parts are also no longer available new, but CJ had these units in perfect condition and in stock.

New rear leaf springs, shackles, and shock absorbers for all four corners were included. CJ also included new U-bolts to secure the axle. Those KYB gas shocks are the hot setup for street use.

This is a complete stainless brake-line kit from Classic Tube, including everything needed to completely re-line the car, including the flex line running from the body and axle housing. All of the metal hard lines are pre-bent and ready to go on the car.

This 8-inch axle is in good shape and came from a '65 Mustang slated to receive a 9-inch. It has a 3.00:1 ratio and was complete with drum brakes and parking-brake cables.

Here's the front end on our intended victim, wheels off. Notice the four-lug arrangement and small-diameter drum brakes.

The task begins with the removal of the shock absorbers and their upper mounting brackets. Be sure to keep track of the three upper studs that retain each bracket to the tower.

Disconnect the factory antisway bar first at the end links and then at the framerails. None of these components will be reused.

With the shock absorber and bracket gone, the spring compressing tool can be loaded into position. The tool will hang from the hooks set near the top of the coil.

The lower plate of the tool was put into place and the spring was then compressed far enough to make the removal easy, as seen here.

Here, a strut rod comes away from the car. The front nuts on these bars are often frozen solid, so be sure to break them loose before undoing the rod at the control-arm end.

Remove the bolts at the lower-control-arm pivot bushings. After the large nuts securing the upper control arms have been removed, the whole front suspension will come away from the car. Because we won't be using these spindles, we don't have to fight any ball joints. All this stuff goes on the heap.

At the back of our car, we've disconnected the driveshaft and supported the axle with a jackstand while the rear leaf spring is removed. The old air shocks someone had in place were removed and discarded.

Once both sides were undone, the old six-cylinder axle was removed. This light-duty assembly is no good for any sort of performance application.

We're down to the bare car now with no suspension at all. From this point on, all of our work is going to be fun.

The first constructive step is to assemble our new upper control arms. New spring perches are installed, and next we'll put in all of the required grease fittings.

With our upper control arms assembled, they can now be installed on the car. This early Mustang suspension uses shims at the upper arm for alignment, as there are no adjustment eccentrics on the lower control arm. Our new arm has right-angle grease fittings at the ends of the cross-shaft to allow for easy servicing on the car.

Our new lower control arms were the next components to be installed. Don't forget to install the grease fittings on the bottom of the ball joint.

We connect the upper and lower ball joints to the V-8 spindles we got from CJ's. Don't attempt a V-8 conversion while keeping the small spindles. You'll be asking for big trouble.

With our new control arms and spindles in place, it was time to carefully compress our new springs. Try to avoid creating a curve when compressing the coil, as a straight spring is much easier to install.

The compressed coil goes up into position inside the shock tower. Once installed, the tail of the spring should seat up against a stop tab on the spring perch.

The new KYB shocks from CJ are perfect for a performance street Mustang, and we'll have them at all four corners.

Moving to the back of our car, we began work by attaching a new leaf spring using the new front bolt and rear shackle.

Our strut rods were installed. Next time, we'll install these before the spring, as it will be easier to line up the holes.

This 1-inch-diameter bar will be a big improvement over the small-diameter factory bar. All fasteners and bushings were included.

The next step was to lift one end of our 8-inch V-8 axle and set it on top of the spring. A floor jack was brought in to support the axle at the center.

With the axle lifted to the proper extent, we could complete the installation of the other leaf spring. We then lowered the axle onto the new springs, locating it on the pins. Pins on the bottom of the spring locate the spring plate.

With the axle positioned correctly, new U-bolts were used to complete the axle installation. The driveshaft was connected to the new axle.

New KYB shocks were installed at the rear axle. Here, we see them being attached at the top. Access required removal of the back seat.

Here's our completed rear suspension setup with 8-inch axle. New springs and KYB shocks will give us a solid footing.

Now, we're moving directly to the brakes. After the drum is removed, loosen and remove the bearing retainer fasteners through the hole in the axle flange.

You won't always need a slide hammer to remove the axles, but if they're stuck, a slide is sure nice to have.

With the bearing retainer loose and the axle gone, remove the drum-brake backing plate as shown. Looks like someone had their brakes done before deciding to change axles.

These rear-caliper mounting plates are labeled for left and right side, so be sure not to install them backwards. The recessed area becomes the new rear-axle-bearing retainer, while the original part simply fastens over it.

You'll need to replace your stock wheel studs with the longer ones included in the kit. With the axle going back into the housing, this all-important split shim goes over the axle and is positioned on the outside of the wheel bearing between the bearing and the caliper mounting plate/retainer. Nothing will fit right without the shim, as the axle endplay will be wrong.

With the caliper mounting plates in position, use the furnished new fasteners to attach them to the axle-housing endplate.

These thick spacers are used to hold the rear caliper-mounting brackets the correct distance from the mounting plate.

How things will work becomes more apparent as these caliper-mounting brackets are fitted into position atop the spacers. Nuts are added to the bolts to complete the connection, with the lower parking-brake bracket being retained at the same time.

The new rotor was put in place, and here the rear caliper goes into position. Two bolts will hold the rear caliper in place.

Here's our completed rear-disc-brake installation. The stock parking-brake cables attach to the calipers without modification. This is good-guy hardware borrowed from the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.

Moving again to the front of the car, we see the new caliper-mounting brackets and dust shields going into position using the supplied four new fasteners.

The area marked should be removed or curled back to avoid interference with the brake caliper. These dust shields have the Ford logo on them, and this minor problem dates back to original production.

Prepare the rotors by packing and installing the inner wheel bearing. Leave some extra grease in the hub and install the seal as shown by tapping gently around the whole circumference.

Place the prepared rotor on the spindle and install the outer bearing. Install the large washer, and torque the castle nut to 15 lb-ft. Don't forget the cotter key. Installing the dust cap may be the toughest part of the whole brake job.

These brake pads were made by EBC and were included in the Stainless Steel Brakes kit. Load them into the caliper and install the retainer plate on top.

We were amazed at how light the new SSB aluminum calipers were. They will dramatically reduce unsprung weight at the front wheel. Here, the calipers go into place. Two bolts hold them exactly like the factory disc setup.

Be sure to use the furnished copper washers when you install the flex lines. They come on the caliper hidden under the red plastic port plug.

Our completed installation at the wheel looks like a nice improvement over our stock stuff, that's for sure. We installed our slotted rotors according to the factory markings.

This sorry-looking OEM master cylinder is also pretty scary looking and makes us glad we decided to go with all new brake lines from Classic Tube.

All of the old brake lines came off the car before this new dual-reservoir master was installed.

All of the lines from Classic Tube are precision-bent for a precise fit. Here, we're sizing up our new firewall brake line.

Out back, the new hard line for our rear axle goes into position. The fit on these lines was perfect.

Except for a larger radiator and V-8 motor mounts, our '641/2 ragtop should be ready for some V-8 power. We've got some cool wheels and tires on the way, and our drivetrain plans aren't solidified yet, but they should be interesting.