Kind of a two week hiatus, EVERYONE in the damn house was / is sick as a Dog!
I started it two weeks ago, and am on the tail end of it. Going to try to get some time with Jr. on some of the welding this afternoon. In the meantime, I spent a fair amount of time going through the project in my head. Long story short, decided that the Rotary was just logistically not worth the extra effort. I did however, find a way to strip out the Crown Vic. without pissing off the one neighbor (as if it takes any effort at all!). So with that in mind, and keeping with "Keeping it Moving" so Jr. doesn't lose sight of the end game, I rethought using the C4 front suspension. Would have looked cool as hell, but again, adds too much potentially unnecessary work. It is going to be a mix of MII and custom components. I spent quite a bit of time with Vsusp, and the Speedway website. I ordered a MII crossmember kit from Paul Horton's "Welder Series". $160.00 US. Can't beat that with a stick!. I modeled the front suspension around Flaming River's 21.5" manual rack. I can narrow the MII crossmember by 1.5", and all should fall into place. Gives me a track width of 53-1/2", so if I use the 11" MII front brake kit from Speedway, I won't have a major penalty with the 1/2" per side increase in track width and have to use wheels with a huge offset. It will allow me to keep the wheels inside the fenders with clearance, and not HAVE to cut the fenders. We will go with a EPS unit so the Wife can drive it too.
Another benny popped up, so to speak, with the position of the rear differential. With it in its new lower location, I can use the Aluminum fuel tank that came with the kit, probably without having to tweak it at all.
And on a final note, the wife surprised the hell out of me by telling me she REALLY wanted a manual trans in the car!. So, we are back to a Stick. I think I'll have some leverage when we go to the NSRA Street Rod Nationals next August....
Edit 12/17: Vsusp:
https://tinyurl.com/yayf9m4aI know it isn't great on the camber gain in bump, but for what the car is, and the constraints involved, I think it is a good compromise. If anyone has any input on this, good or bad, please comment.
I'm going to give this a few days to digest, and recheck it. If I don't see anything I missed, or anyone on the forum doesn't find a major flaw in my setup, I'm going shopping at Speedway. That way between Christmas and New Year, I can get a real quality week in with Jr., and seriously jump start this project!