If You Can’t Afford a Unique Performance Mustang, Build Your Own!
We photographed this installation on a Mustang in Unique Performance’s assembly line, so the car went a long time between losing its original suspension and being fit with this new one. We could not show you a before photo other than this empty wheel well, but if you have a Mustang to modify, then you already know what your stock suspension looks like.
We’ve already tempted and teased our readers with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Unique Performance Shelby continuation cars—the GT 350SR and the GT 500E (Ford Builder, Mar. ’05, page 67). Many of you probably lust after one or both of these cars, but not all of us can afford to purchase one yet. And because of their limited numbers, their prices do, unfortunately, put them out of reach of many of us Ford enthusiasts. That’s the bad news. But there is good news; don’t assume that because you cannot buy a genuine continuation Shelby, you can’t build a car that drives just like one. Unique Performance sells not only the cars as complete packages, but they understand the situation quite clearly and have made available many of the individual parts and assemblies used to build their cars.
Loosen the collars that connect the steering rack to its mounts. This step will make installing the rack much easier.
We learned this while visiting the Unique facility, and they took time out of their schedules so that we could show you how to install the high-tech front and rear suspensions that they have devised to fit the 350SR and 500E. You can purchase either or both of these suspensions simply by contacting Unique Performance directly. Once you do, you will have a big box of handling on its way to your doorstep.
These suspensions are decades more advanced than those that originally came on the ’65-’68 Mustangs. In front, the upper/lower control arms and strut rods are still there, but they are built using tubular construction and are complemented by adjustable coilover shocks. The rear suspension is even cooler. You will still need a 9-inch solid rear axle, but instead of leaf springs, you get a Watts Link System, fitted with cantilever coilovers that mount behind and roughly parallel with the rear axle. It is a marvel of packaging and provides spectacular handling for a live-axle car.
Place these adapter plates on top of the power steering rack.
Hold your bolt and adapter in place and ask a friend to help lift the steering rack into place. Bolt it down.
Now you can install your upper control arm. It bolts in easily enough, but note that this kit incorporates the so-called “Shelby mod.” Through racing, Shelby discovered that lowering the inner mounting point of the upper control arm resulted in improved performance, and this alteration has become common among Mustang and Falcon enthusiasts.
Next, install the lower control arm by slipping it into its pocket and bolting it in place.
The strut rod connects to this pocket in the front subframe and the lower control arm.
If you have a welder, you can perform these installations on your own; if not, you will need to have someone weld a few braces and subframe connectors before you can do the rest of the work yourself. Aside from the basic welding, these are simple installations that any of you can perform in your own garage. A lift would be convenient, but a tall set of jackstands will do just fine.
You can now install the spindle between the control arms. Make sure to do so using castle nuts and cotter pins.
You’ll need to drill three new holes for the upper shock mounts in the original shock tower, so use this plate as a template and then mark and drill your holes.
The new upper shock mount bolts in from both above and below the fender as seen here.
Bolt the coilover shock assembly into the upper and lower shock mounts. Notice that the upper portion of the coilover has an adjustment knob for fine-tuning your shock damping.
Prepare to mount the sway bar by placing the bushing around the bar and fitting the bushing inside the mounting bracket. The bushing will extend considerably above the top of the bracket; that’s normal, so don’t try to trim the bushing.
The sway bar will bolt to the stock mounting holes, but the height of the bushing means that having a friend or a clamp of some sort will make it much easier to secure the bolts.
Use the supplied end links and bushings to bolt the sway bar to the lower control arm.
Before we can show you how to make your Mustang handle curves, we must alert you to a key difference between how you will perform your installation and how we demonstrate it. Unique builds its cars in an assembly-line fashion, so the items that require welding are installed and painted long before the rest of the suspension is bolted in. We cannot show you how to install those welded items in a step-by-step fashion, but the instructions provided will fill in anything that we leave out. The bottom line is that this is one of the slickest ways we’ve seen to modernize your early Mustang and to turn it into a serious handling machine—maybe even better than Shelby’s originals.
That’s it. Once you install the tie rod ends, your new suspension will be ready to go. Add the brake kit of your choice, and you are ready for the road. Unique offers the same brake kit it install on all its GT 500E and GT 350SR continuation cars, so be sure to check them out.
Because of the assembly-line process at Unique, the new subframe connectors and chassis bracing were already installed by the time we were took our photos. This photo shows you the placement of those items. You’ll have to weld the subframe connectors, and the bracing should bolt right on.
This was how the rear of the GT 500E looked when we showed up, so you’ll have to rely on Unique’s instructions to install this portion of the rear subframe. It just bolts into the mounts you need to weld to the car. Follow the instructions.
Bolt in the cantilever rockers for the coilover shocks. Make sure the bolts are tight, but not so tight that the rocker can’t move.
Next, install these small pushrods into the outer end of each rocker.
Now you can install your coilover shock assembly. The end with the adjustment knob bolts to the subframe, and the other end bolts to the rocker.
You’ll have to modify your rearend with the mounting tabs for the cantilever pushrods. Note that there are three holes in each tab, so where you mount the pushrod will alter how the suspension responds. Placing it in the middle is probably a good idea for starters.
Install one of these links on each side of the car, running from forward mounts that you’ll have to weld to the brackets on your rearend.
Install one of these links on each side of the car, running from forward mounts that you’ll have to weld to the brackets on your rearend.
The crucial feature of the Watts link suspension is this pivot arm that bolts to a bung in the bottom of the rearend. Don’t tighten it so much that it cannot pivot and do its job.
Now you’ll need to bolt another pair of links from the Watts link pivot arm to brackets on each side of the rear subframe.
For the next step, you’ll have to remove some bolts from the thirdmember in order to bolt on this brace. This photo should give you an idea of which bolts you need to remove. Once you remove them, just put on the brace and reinstall the bolts.
Bolt this bracket and link to the other end of the bracket that you just installed to the thirdmember.
That bracket link will now bolt up to this location at the rear of the subframe bracing.
You may have already installed your axles, but if not, do so now.
While we were at it, we captured the rear brake installation. As mentioned, the brake kit is available separately. Install the caliper mounting plate and bolt it down to the rearend.
Next, slip on the rotor.
All it takes is two bolts to install each caliper.
Bolt the braided stainless brake hoses to the caliper and, where appropriate, on your rearend.
Finally, hook up your parking brake cables.
Now go and have some fun with your new suspension. It’ll be hard not to—that’s a promise.
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