beakyboy wrote:Well I Got real lucky - i bought a new top on ebay so I am off to a start... Has anyone used any modfication to suspension to stiffen body and help with cowl shake? Did it help and what did you do? Thank you in advance
Hmmm... great questions. I think I can help here as my personal restoration project has already taken me down similar roads with the '88. Interesting that you ended up buying that tan colored top recently on ebay. I had it watchlisted and came close to bidding on it for a spare. Even though my original is black not tan... certain parts are so hard to come by for these cars that if it went cheap enough I couldn't have resisted! Glad it found a great home.
Anyhow, I completely understand wanting to stiffen the body structure and reduce cowl shake. Smart move. I can't stand the 'shake/rattle/'n roll' either! Of course coming out of a Lexus LS-400 that was built like a bank vault and into a McLaren probably doesn't help much... but hey, that's beside the point.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...
In a nutshell, preventing the chassis from flexing allows the suspension to do its job, plain and simple. The suspension in these cars is set up fairly stiff, which is a double-whammy when coupled to a flexible body structure. Although ASC did quite a bit of underbody strengthening on these cars (confirmed as I've already spent a LOT of time underneath mine... possibly more than spent driving it!
), these cars were built during an era more based in 'trial and error', not modern CAD/CAM stress analysis engineering. Fact is, any of these cars with careful research and parts selection, there is plenty of improvement to be had for a modest investment of time and cost.
Even if 100% "originality" is somewhat important to you, there is nothing I'm going to mention right now that isn't completely and easily reversible in an afternoon if ever desired. Here's what I recommend: A strut tower brace right off the bat - HUGE improvement. It triangulates the suspension loads between both front corners and the firewall. Easy bolt-on install. $100-150 bucks and cash very well spent. Next, a K-member brace. This goes beneath the car and stiffens the front support structure on these highly flexible uni-body cars. I'd follow with some urethane steering rack bushings which substantially improves on-center steering feel and directness, stainless steel shifter bushings install in 15 minutes and take the slop and 'rubberyness' out of the stock shifter.
Also strongly recommend a new OEM transmission mount because this inexpensive, highly-stressed component has likely sagged simply due to age (do NOT install a polyurethane trans mount - they transmit an obscene amount of vibration on these cars... just ask me how I know!). 1/2 hour job and a $35 part at your friendly local Ford dealer. Makes the drivetrain feel significantly smoother from a vibration perspective and corrects the important driveshaft angle back to original specs. Carefully inspect all of your suspension and driveline bushings while you're under there. Even with only 15K of use, depending on how and where the car has been stored, a lot of the rubber components may have experienced significant degradation over time. They're cheap and in the grand scheme of things, not all that much work to replace. Cumulatively, they'll make a HUGE difference in the overall driving 'feel' of the car.
Now... while I'm thinking of it - completely flush the brake fluid with a modern synthetic DOT4 fluid. A whole quart of the stuff is $7 bucks at AutoZone. Perfect time to also replace the stock junk rubber brake hoses with aftermarket braided lines. It's a fairly inexpensive safety addition that will give a far firmer, more progressive pedal feel with much better overall modulation. If you prefer not to go that route, just replace with new OEM lines... they're cheap and yours are now 24 years old... point being - don't forget about the brakes!
And if you REALLY want to go all the way with the body structure and make your '86 drive more like an '06, in conjunction with everything else I've just mentioned, have a professional weld in a set of subframe connectors. These were developed originally by drag racers making 3 or 4 times the stock Ford horsepower who couldn't tolerate the 'Flexi-Flyer' nature of the stock Fox body. Happens to work exceptionally well at tying everything together... even on a bone stock 'daily driver'. This is the only 'mod' which wouldn't be easily reversible but I can assure you the difference will be like night and day. Even with ALL of this done to your car, the only visible component would be the strut tower brace underhood... even Ford took lessons from the aftermarket and made this a stock component beginning in the '94 model year on V-8 powered cars. If you do everything listed here you won't think you're still driving the same car. It'll feel... well... "modern" basically. And with only 15K on the clock, yours will drive 'better than new'. If you'd like to discuss anything in particular feel free to PM or just share with the group. Thanks for your post. Hope this helps!
