Thread: Front End Suspenion

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I just got a 53 Mercury, and was needing to know what other front end suspension's will fit this ride, or is there some type of upgrade to make the excisting suspension better? Any ideas or comments will be greatly appreciated. Les

Hi Les, well the range of options runs from mild to wild and are priced accordingly. First of all, you have to ask yourself do you have the space to devote to an ongoing project like this. Then, do you have the tools to do it and lastly, do you have the expertise?

I'm not familiar with the design of the Merc suspension, but if you are going to build a street driver, you may be just as happy with replacing the worn stock components with new ones and upgrading the drums to disc with a kit from someone like Master Power Brakes. If you decide you want to change out the whole mess, there are companies that make a conversion to late model Mustang II IFS and other designs as well. The other option is to go shopping in the boneyards. Measure the front track of your Merc (middle of one tire tread to the middle of the other tire tread) and take a tape measure and pad and pencil with you to the boneyard to measure possible candidates for a front frame clip swap. Be careful and only measure cars or trucks with stock wheels and tires on them. If the possible candidate has mags on it, the backspace may be different from stock. Be advised though, that it is no easy task to get all the front sheel metal lined back up. The core support will have to be carefully measured and affixed back at the same place it was with the Merc frame in order to attach everything back. Here's a link to Heidt's. You can find other sources by googling "front suspension conversion" or other wording. http://www.heidts.com/index.html