'71-'73 Shock Towers

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Mister 4x4

Too Big to Sneak
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Location
San Angelo, Texas
My Car
1971 Mustang Mach 1
Why is it that I can find brand-new shock towers for every year model EXCEPT ours at every vendor?

I'm concerned because if my shock towers are anything like the rest of the apron sheet metal around them, I'm in a world of trouble.

 
the 71-73 shock towers, engine cradle, strut rod cross member, rear cowl/apron connector panel, and cowl are not reproduced.

the 4 major aprons and rad support are reproduced, and they suck.

the reproduction parts are missing re-enforcement plates and some hardware and some of the mounts are off and not 100% in the right place.

the bends in the sheet metal stink, blah blah blah.

my towers were totally gone, my aprons were totally gone, my engine cradle was half gone on the passenger side, my strut rod cross member was good, my cowl was gone.

i was able to get better towers out of a scrapped 73 vert. i had the towers and engine cradle cut out of a wreck as one piece and then each piece was separated into towers and engine cradle then each part was media blasted, patched to repair damage, and set aside.

next i was able to get the cowl/apron connectors from another junked car in maryland. they were cut out separated from the scrap metal, blasted and patched also.

i had a very talented man working on my car, he stripped my front end down to the rails, rebuilt the rails(any worse and my original rails would of been cut off to the firewall. and then was able to reconstruct my front end.

the only reproduction parts i was able to use was the 2 front and 2 rear aprons infront of and behind my new 73 shock towers, and a radiator support.

most of the missing parts were hand fabricated and anything that could not be replaced was either hand fabricated or patched from another car and placed on mine.

it sucks i know took me 2 weeks to find the towers and cradle, 1 month to find the little apron pieces and 2 months to find a cowl that never happened and i ended up having my cowl hand fabricated also. i think the towers and cradle cost me about 1000$ the cowl would of been 500-1000$ and maybe 500$ in reproduction parts.

i would say about 2500$ in materials. i think the total with labor was around 7500$ at the time all because of the hand fabrication of missing parts.

the original budget was for 5000$ and was suppose to take 4 weeks, but after the disaster it turned into it became around 7500$ and 6 months.

at the time i also had the option of buying a blue 73 coupe in good shape but the roof was totally gone because of the vinyl roof. that would of cost me 500$ and i believe it was running at the time also. however i did not want to start a junkyard at my house and chop up a car just to get a few parts.

so i paid for the labor of somebody else to get just 5 parts out of a wreck for me.

 
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Yeah... thanks. I'm thinking I might also have some sub-frame and cross-member issues too.

But... I'll know more this weekend.

 
So far, the shock towers are looking OK - there's some minor rust on the bottoms down by the headers where they wrap around, but not in the structural areas.

I got the tranny and exhaust out today, and the engine's ready to come out first thing in the morning - so I'll know more by then. I think there are some subframe areas that are bad, but maybe the 'towers can be saved.

I'll post more tomorrow. When I figure out how to post pictures, I'll start a blog, too. :D

 
Really you don't need a kit for the 71-73 cars the suspension is different from the early cars and handles very good on its own.

one comment i always get after somebody drives mine is "wow it handles a billion times better then my 66 what did you do to it?"

they are shocked when i tell them it is stock.

 
YEP ME TOO. THE ONLY PLACE I FOUND THAT I COULD GET PART BY PART OR THE WHOLE FRONT STRUCTURE, IS WEST COAST CLASSIC COUGAR .COM THEY HAVE A COMPLETE FRT STRUCTURE FOR 545.00 .

ALSO DON AT OMS, TOLD ME HE HAD SOME TOWERS

 
I just picked a set of towers up from OMS...I'm in the same boat as you guys! Lots of work! LOL

 
ALL I CAN SAY IS GOOD LUCK. I DIDNT HAVE THIS SITE OR OMS, TOO GUIDE ME AND LIKE YOU COULDNT FIND PARTS. SOOO I ENDED UP REBUIDING THEM BY HAND. LOTS OF CUTTING FITTING WELDING AND GRINDING, BUT THEY CAME OUT PRETTY GOOD, YOU WOULD HAVE TO REALLY LOOK TO TELL WHAT I DID. BUT THE HOURS IT TOOK WAS WAY MORE THAN THE COST OF BUYING REPLACEMENTS.

 
ALL I CAN SAY IS GOOD LUCK. I DIDNT HAVE THIS SITE OR OMS, TOO GUIDE ME AND LIKE YOU COULDNT FIND PARTS. SOOO I ENDED UP REBUIDING THEM BY HAND. LOTS OF CUTTING FITTING WELDING AND GRINDING, BUT THEY CAME OUT PRETTY GOOD, YOU WOULD HAVE TO REALLY LOOK TO TELL WHAT I DID. BUT THE HOURS IT TOOK WAS WAY MORE THAN THE COST OF BUYING REPLACEMENTS.
Funny, I did the same thing with my towers and frame inside the tower area. I even took out the support inside the towers to repair them and the tower. It did come out nice, but like you said A lot of time!!!! I took pics as I made things.

mustang body work 003.JPG

mustang 012.JPG

 
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