the life and times of my 71 comrick build

I think the factory did the shelby drop starting in 1974....

 

Bryant, Jeff (FRO) did the shelby drop on his and drag races it and said it did wonders for to making the car stable going down the track.

I have seen a few 74 and later mavericks and I don't believe they have ever done a shelby drop from the factory. I just did the drop to mine and it puts the grease fittings where they are touching the shock towers as they get narrower as they go down from the original UCA placement. Mine is an earlier maverick but all I have ever seen are made the same way so I believe this is one of those "my mav came out with a 4 bbl carb", " I know some one that had a stock mav with a boss 302", etc....

 

all the responses in the technical section to my questing about shelby drop http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=90479 have convinced me to do it. i plan on putting the moog rubber bushing conversion into some stock control arms. i expect that the bushings have more clearance than the stock ones. ill move them as far back as possible in the tower. i also plan on putting a wedge between the ball joint and the control arm to keep it out of bind.

 

Bryant, I also bought the MOOG K8233 "re-design" kit. They are indeed shorter than the originals. Have not installed them yet.

 

its been way too long sense ive done any work on the comet. ive gotten back working on finishing the shock tower notch. ive about got the drivers side done. i also drilled the holes for the shelby drop. i did the 1.5" drop. the steel bushings in the control arm dont clear the the side walls of the tower. im going to use the moog problem solver bushing kit so this wont be a problem.
ive only got one pic to show whats going on. when i do the passenger side ill try to get step by step pics and post a how to on it

 

Looking good. I like how the top of the tower is rounded. At first glance it will be harder to spot that it was done. Did you re-use a section of the original to do that?

The shop that did mine just cut it off square.

If it is not too late, I would be tempted to bevel cut that middle rib on that lower section. Mine is like that and it is probably the biggest clearance issue that still remains with my headers on my 351W.

 

Nice! I like the fact that you incorporated the curve back into the tower. Looks like it was designed that way instead of being modified.

 

if you look at the earlier pics you can see how i cut and used the stock metal. their is over lap on all of the horizontal cuts that are or will be welded on both sides of the tower.

i was going to wrap a tab from the cover plate over the middle rib. but sense you mention the clearance issue ill do the bevel cut to flush it down further and then wrap the tab from the cover plate over it to tie it together.

thats the idea. when i see the flat plate way it always draws my eyes to it and that it takes away from a good looking engine compartment.

 

'Looks good.

 

looking good!

 

heres a few more picks of the progress on the shock tower notching.





i still need to weld the wheel well side of all the pieces. then some grinding, sanding, a little bit of filler, some more sanding then some paint.

 

Looks great... I like the way you kept the curves, looks factory installed...

 

That's going to look super clean, I really like it!

 

Great job on that. Once the grinding and bondo work is complete its going to look great. I did mine and im happy with it but theres a learning curve the first time you do it....i know the next time they will look better and it wont take me half as long.

mashoris car next?

 

i expect the other side will look even better and it will be easier to do. i figured out a lot of tricks doing the first side. definitely measure at least twice and sneak up on the cuts.

im sure we will do mashoris when the next time his motor comes out. that shouldnt be till at least after the silver state classic in september.