I bought a whole Speedway front end kit for my project.  I told the sales rep I was using a STOCK  1980 Pinto crossmember and he suggested I get the kit with tubular lower control arms that eliminated the strut rods.  I won't get into all the gory details but that option didn't work with the factory cross member.  If you are going to  get the aftermarket crossmember, you will have plenty of options for control arms, steering rack, springs, brakes, etc.  The kit comes with GM style, floating caliper front disc brakes.  For the $$$ it is a good value.

That's an interesting option I didn't know about. The Speedway Mustang II crossmembers are only $340, although they don't have universal options like Heidts does. I was going to pull the crossmember out of a '77 parts car I had in order to upgrade my '72 with MII-compatible parts, but determined it was going to be a bigger project than I wanted at the time. I still have all the bolt-on suspension parts, though, so maybe an aftermarket one is still in the cards...

I had a difficult time when I made/welded the floors in my Corvair. Even using press plates, clamps and weighted levers I found a 1 second (or less) weld warped the floor enough that I had to wait 3-4 minutes to do the next weld. And I was using my 100 amp Lincoln MIG on the lowest setting.

Good to see you're on it.  Where did you get that section of floor?  Nice piece of material to work with. You have some big gaps to close up and you'll get a lot of practice doing it!  Keep us posted of progress.  I think I'm done with anything substantial on my project unless we get a sustained warming trend.  Happy New Year!

Great way to start the New Year! Looking forward to your progress updates.

Ok first update of 2025. Didn't post last wk because my Farther n law is in the Hospital with pneumonia but he is getting better.
So I finally started a few tack welding in the drivers floor pan. I used 1 sheet metal screw to help hold pan down. Got a few spot welds after trimming the pan a little more and drilling some holes for spot welds. Only one picture this time.

It's been over a month since I made any progress and today may be the last until Spring.  Today I attached the grill into the header panel, then the header panel to the car.  Then I mounted the front bumper, then the headlight buckets.  I think that will be it for 2024.  I'll resume in the Spring.  I hope everyone has a good Winter and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Quote from: TIGGER on November 19, 2024, 08:59:47 PM
I want to say I have later Pinto springs in my 73.  I did cut them though to get the ride height I desired.  Maybe someone else can chime in.

That's what I did. 1977 springs in my '72 and cut them to get the ride height I wanted.

Looking forward to your progress and glad it's not me doing floor work!   

Pretty much this subforum is the resource for giving a Pinto some 2.3T power.
For years now I haven't been getting email notifications of subscribed thread replies. Haven't changed my account settings nor email and nothing lands in the spam folder so I have to check the forums manually.