I've installed this on my 65. Follow the directions, everything is straight-forward.

What questions do you have?

 

My car is convertible, so the subframe brace bolts to the floor bracing at the trans tunnel. I had to cut apart that brace quite a bit to the TCI brace up in the car, just trying to figure out if that's the norm or if my car is really really off. I was under the impression this kit was a straight bolt in with the exception of the rearend brackets and so far, I'm going to have to do moderate to major surgery to both my car and this kit in order to make it work. Not that I mind, that's the name of the game in hot rodding, just trying to determine if I have bigger problems.

 

FWIW, I didn't need to modify anything to install their kit. I did install this on pars I replaced (basically the entire floor, frame rails and floor supports.

With that said, these cars are 50 years old and we have no way of knowing if any repairs were properly made in the past.

hth

 

I don't disagree at all, never know what has happened after all these years. Especially my car that I bought as "rust repaired" half done project. Well I didn't like the looks of some of the repairs or the fact I only needed 3 jack stands. So I carried it up to a very reputable metal shop in the area and had them straighten and flatten everything with a brand new 1 piece floor, floor braces, front and rear frame rails, toe boards and trunk drop offs. All the while it being bolted to a jig they designed to keep it flat and straight so when I got it back I need all 4 jack stands. So yeah, either this guy completely screwed everything up installing the new metal, or this kit isn't as bolt in as I thought, which is what I'm trying to figure out. It doesn't really matter either way, I'm using this kit so I will do what it takes to get it in, but I am disappointed with the amount of work I will need to do for a bolt in kit. Thanks for the help so far. Jim

 

Glad to help Jim.

There is a drawing on this site somewhere that has dimensions of the frame sections. Try to search for it, then measure your car and see where you stand.

Also, be absolutely positive that when your car is on stands, that it is perfectly level in both directions. Check that your panel gaps have not changed from when the car was on its wheels. Then check to be sure your doors open and close as they do when the wheels are on the ground. All this will help to ensure that that car has no flex.

As far as bolt in goes. There is drilling required. As long as you are accurate with your drilling, you should have no issues. If you do, respond back and try to explain (pics also) where your issues are. I will see if I can help.

I do know that after the install of this kit and the addition of a 1x square tube jacking rail, I can jack the car from just behind the front wheel and the entire side of the car lifts up evenly. No more twist or sag.

Good luck.

 

Well I haven't done much more work on this, it's been very frustrating so far. Everything is level and I have followed the directions to the letter, yet I have not gotten a bolt hole to line up or anything to go in as expected past step 4. The subframe connectors, once I got them hung from the rear and swung up to the front, I drilled and bolted down per the directions. Then went to the back end and saw the left tube was about an inch outside the frame rail and the right was about an inch inside the frame rail. Well some leverage fixed that, then I ran into the subframe structure issue and cut apart the floor brace. Got that swung up into place and moved on to the outside brackets at the rear, 2 bolts per side, plus the 2 bolts per side at the front, I've gotten 1 on each side of the rear to go in, the other 2 bolts are way off. So yeah, build quality of this kit is fantastic, fitment in my application, sucks. Currently I'm working out my next steps in my head to get this stuff all up and in, I think the easiest thing to do is try to swing everything up from the rear and redrill the holes in the front. I'll get back into it soon, hopefully the issues die down, I have pretty severe rage issues and this $2000 "bolt in" kit is pi@@ing me off big time.

 

Sorry to read of your troubles. I would say that is frustrating.

Any chance you can post some pictures of the locations you are having difficulty with?

Have you contacting TCI? Do you think they may have sent you the incorrect kit? Something seems odd about all this.

Picture will help.

Also, if you need, I can measure my kit so you have something to compare against.

 

I will get downstairs this week and get some work done, I'll try to get some pics and post them up, frustrating is putting it mildly to be honest. The latest thing I've noticed is the subframe assembly, the part that goes between the frame rails, I've noticed the flanges where it bolts to the frame rails in the front is about 3/8" from touching the frame rails on either side, not sure what that's all about yet. I was thinking it was part the car is off a bit and part the kit was off a bit, but now I'm not so sure. Either I got a kit that built by a drunk guy on a Friday afternoon, or a hungover guy on Monday morning, or this guy that did the metal work on my car really jacked stuff up and I'm starting to lean toward the last option. I find it really hard to believe TCI built their jig for these kits with such tight tolerances that small differences aren't able to be overcome. I'll give things another crack or two and then if I'm still having issues, the car will go on a trailer and go back to the metal guy.

 

From your descriptions, it sounds like the metal guy was off. I would find it hard to believe that TCI was off that much.

I look forward to the pics.

 

Maybe these pics will help you

 

TCI

I see this is an old post but I have installed the kit on my 66 Fastback and love it
Take your time and follow the directions and you will have no problems

Works great

 

I see this is an old post but I have installed the kit on my 66 Fastback and love it
Take your time and follow the directions and you will have no problems

Works great

I had thought about getting a torque arm suspension too, but I couldn't see how it would work with where the T56 cross member is welded in and still being able to squeeze a 3" exhaust through.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

I quit messing with the rear end for awhile as I couldn't take the frustrations. So fall or so this past year I started back on it, ignoring the crap I had to make right and going forward with what I could in order to gain some forward progress. Got everything welded to the rear end and got that mocked and hung into place. I won't even get into what a battle that was, again a never ending fight to get the bolt holes lined up and that all will require more tweaking to be correct. So I got in enough to call it done-ish and moved forward to the front.

Now to eliminate any doubts about my car being off, I took the suggestions of everyone and started measuring my car to see how far it was off. Well to my surprise, it isn't. Not one single millimeter. Per the factory Ford chassis dimension specs found on this forum and all over the Google. Everywhere I laid a tape measure it all speced back to exactly what those diagrams said I should have. And to further prove this, I cut every bit of the old front suspension apart to install a Rod & Custom Mustang II front cross member and it fit absolutely perfectly, no adjusting or tweaking required.

I cannot and will not deny this is a well built well engineered kit. But they either have some big time problems with their jig, or the guy who built my kit built it upside down. And I believe it was the latter. Everything I look at tells me it was either built with the left on the right or the top on the bottom. Hard to explain, but looking at what I see, that's the best I can come up with. I'll throw up some pics and let you guys have a peek. I am pleased with everything for the most part, all frustrations aside.

 

https://imgur.com/a/K67pg