1993 Ford Mustang Notchback - Captain Hook - PHR Project Car

The factory rubber bushings pressed into the rear-end housing were replaced with spherical bearings before installing the new upper control arms. Buck suggests heating them up with a torch and cutting them out with a Sawzall, since using an air chisel is too time consuming. After applying anti-seize to the adjuster links, Buck lined up the bolthole locations of the new arms with the stock pieces to establish a baseline length. This will be changed when it comes time to fine-tune the chassis for track duty.

After attaching the billet endlinks to the torsion tube portion of the sway bar, it was slid inside the side mounts on each end before the entire assembly was welded to the body. To prevent the rear-end pumpkin from hitting the bar at launch, the bar must be pushed as far forward and upward as possible. Before throwing sparks, Buck made sure that the bar was completely flat using a level.

In order to avoid complications during final setup, it's imperative to square the rear end beneath the car before attaching the endlink mounting tabs. Buck took several measurements between the center of the pumpkin and the body to ensure proper alignment. Afterwards, the tabs were TIG-welded before attaching the endlinks.

From Buck's experience, positioning the endlinks at 10 degrees from horizontal is a good baseline setting. Depending on whether the car pulls to the left or to the right, it can be straightened out by adjusting the preload on the endlinks. Incremental adjustments can yield big changes on the track. Buck says that a 1/3-turn, or "two flats" in chassis guy lingo, is the most the endlinks should be adjusted at one time.

To maximize weight transfer and consistency, the Competition Engineering springs feature a linear 150 lb/in rate. Relocating the springs directly to the rear-end housing yields a spring rate that's the exact same as the effecting wheel rate. The stock setup, which mounts the springs on the lower control arms, throws linkage ratios into the equation. As a result, the stock arrangement would require springs much stiffer than the one's we're using to achieve a 150 lb/in wheel rate.

With the Competition Engineering rear suspension and the built 8.8 rear end in position, we finished it off with a set of five-lug brake drums from Rock Auto. Project Fox was equipped with wimpy four-lug axles in stock trim, so it only made sense to upgrade to five-lug axles. The least expensive way to complete the four-to-five lug swap is with a set of stock replacement drums off of a mid-'80s to mid-'90s Ford Ranger pickup. They're only $26 a pop from Rock Auto, which was half the going rate at the local parts stores. If you can plan your projects far enough ahead, shopping at Rock Auto can save loads of money.