Not that I like to ride anybody's coat tails "too obviously," but HemiKiller says it well. At 50 or so years of age it is not unusual to have to do a lot of replacing of front end suspension parts. I know on our 1969 Shelby GT500, and the 1973 Mach 1, the prior owners had replaced all suspension parts and spring, front and rear - saving me a lot of grief. And for the 73 Mustang Convertible, with 50 years of age combined with a mere 21,000 original miles driven (barn stored over 40 years), because of the age of the suspension parts I am going to have to do a full rebuild front and rear over the next few years. I will begin with new rear leaf springs, and any rubber bushings front and rear. The control arms bushings and ball joints all look great, but I may replace those parts also to prevent problems later on.
An aside, just because the prior owners replaced all front end parts I am not somehow magically protected from running into problems. For the 73 Mach 1. last October the Right Outer Wheel Bearing (which had been replaced by the prior owner) failed. I ended up having to replace the rotor and hub assembly as the inside of the hub got chewed up pretty badly. The spindle was also damaged and needed to be replaced. With the new rotor and hub assembly the outside races of the inner and outer wheel bearing were pressed into the hub, which meant I needed to get new inner and outer bearings (outside bearing had failed anyway). And because I had a new rotor, I replaced the brake pads despite the fact they had lot of wear left on them. On top of that, because I was dealing with brake parts, what I do to one side I do the the other. So I also purchased a new rotor, pads, and inner & outer wheel bearings for the driver side also. It just kept adding up. Thankfully, the Magnum 500 wheel had not been damaged - it could have been worse.
As you tear into your project I suggest using the best parts available without going nuts (no need for race quality brake rotors, for instance). For wheel bearings I always insist on getting Timken brand bearings. For brake parts I like Raybestos and Bendix, although several other brands also have good quality parts - as long as you ask for their respective premium line of parts. For suspension parts I get Moog for everything I need - you can never go wrong.
Once you do all the work replacing the parts you will need to get the front end aligned. Look for a technician familiar and experienced with Old School alignments. And, as you compress the coil springs, be vary careful to use excellent tools and caution. If you replace the rear leaf springs, you may want a shop with the needed high jack stands to do that work. Even I sub rear leaf spring replacement out to our to a local shop that LOVES working on these older cars, and they listen to my directions re: certain things I want them to do. If I had the equipment that would be one thing, but I do not high really tall jack stands, nor do I have the strength any longer to fight some of those more demanding steps.
Good luck with it...
