King of Sting 1970 Mach 1: Work done around August 12th, 2012

Removing the original front end to make room for the bright shiny new!! Where do I start here? I knew I wanted something different up front, I knew I wanted rack and pinion steering at the very least. I started doing some research, looking at all the rack & pinion kits, searching for donor cars to make a swap easy. I could never find anything as easy as I would have liked, there was always a lot of fab work involved, more than I thought was needed. Not that I am afraid of any kind of work, I just thought there should be a better way. I found several kits for bolt in types and the prices were (are) ridiculous these rack systems. So I kept looking around and started running across complete front end packages with coil over shocks, several of these exist out there as well. Most include a rack & pinion steering system as well with the kit and they’re not that much more expensive than just a rack. Some also include disc brake systems. I started comparing these systems and the more I looked the more I decided something like this is what I am looking for, and it was. Even though the car already has power front disc brakes, I decided on the complete front end kit from TCI (Total Cost Involved Engineering) I really liked the way the kit was put together and it included everything I needed at a reasonable price. I just looked again and the price has already increased from when I bought it. The kit includes coil over shocks, 2” drop spindles, 11” slotted and drilled rotors, calipers, heavy front anti-sway bar, tubular upper and lower A arms, power rack & pinion, motor mounts, very heavy weld in cross member, and close out panels for the missing shock towers which I will not be using as I have other plans to close out the side panels on the engine bay.

This kit has very easy to follow directions for installation so right after I ordered the kit, I downloaded the instructions and started cutting out the old front end. Actually dad removed all the bolt on oldies up front while I was working on a few other things, then I started cutting. And cutting, and grinding, and cutting, and grinding until all the old front suspension components were removed and all the spot welds were cleaned up and smoothed. (Lower A-arm motor mount brackets, shock towers, sway bar brackets, strut rod support channels were all cut out) Since the shock towers came out, this solved my problem of one of them having a large crack in it. (4” crack) I finished by cleaning up all these areas, getting them free of paint, oil, and grease so we could start the installation. I’m not gonna go into all the details of the kit install, I’ll just hit the highlights.

Before I started on the install portion of this project I did go and buy a new Hobart handler 190 MIG welder as we were dealing with a stick welder and a very old small MIG welder. Neither of which I could lay down a very good bead of metal with. I will say this now…I wish I would have filled the gas bottle for my new welder before starting this project. I was still using the flux core wire that the welder comes with and is set up to run when purchased. Welding with gas and solid wire is so much better. There really is no comparison at all.

I welded in the first portion of the kit which is the box plates for the frame rails with flux core wire. It was rough but it was solid and I was able to grind it out smooth. The next phase was the heavy duty cross member and I welded it in also with flux core wire. Again, it was rough but not terrible looking welds. The A-arm/shock brackets are next and at this point I had refilled the empty bottle of welding gas from the old welder and bought some solid wire. Wow!! What a difference!! It actually looks like I can weld now even though I know I am still very much an amateur. I am very impressed with this machine. (Hobart Handler 190) Nice looking beads though, I was impressing myself. lol The anti-sway bar brackets are the last to be welded on. These went on quickly and looked great. As of now this is where I stopped with the front suspension package. The rest is bolt on components and we will not be installing them until more engine bay work is complete and painted. The front end bolt on items are sitting in boxes waiting patiently for their turn on the car.

Front end components that need removed. These are the disc brakes that will be for sale soon, along with other front end parts.

Dad whipped these parts right off the car with very little persuasion. They submitted fully to his wrenching power.

Shock tower with the crack, stock cross member, sway bar brackets, and strut rod support channels all are needing cut out and ground down.

My common vantage point for progressing pictures. This shot shows all that must be removed.

Started cutting here, mostly with a cutting wheel, but the very bottoms of the shock towers could not be reached with the cutting wheel so we had to use dad's favorite tool--the hot wrench.

Mostly cut out, pretty ugly at this point. I still have alot of grinding yet to do here.

After the frame rail has been cleaned up and smoothed.

Just look at all that room!!! Boss 429 would fit in there easily!! Oh well, gonna stick with the original Cleveland. Maybe next time.

This is a shot of the box plates welded to the frame rail. Pretty rough welds since I was still using the flux core wire at this time. It smoothed out ok but I sure wish I would have filled the gas bottle at this point.