front coil-over

September 22, 2005, 09:21:01 PM

I put a new K-member and coil-overs on my XR-7 a while back and just finally got the rest of the car together enough to put it back on the ground. In order to get the mustang struts to fit, I machined the stock spindles. I also had to redrill the holes where the strut bolts to the spindle. I must have been off just a wee bit on the passenger side because the tire actually rubs the spring very lightly. On the drivers side, I must have done a better job with the drilling because I have a whopping 1/8" clearance.

I'm not really that concerned about the rubbing because I will be putting skinny drag tires on the car. However, in previous posts I sort of outlined what I did and said it worked well for the mustang strut. I figured I better let everyone know that I am stupid, and you shouldn't take my advice on a project unless I have actually completed it.

If you are running 225/60/15 tires on a factory wheel, you may have serious clearance issues with this method. However, if you are precise with your drilling, you should be fine. You could even move the top hole on the spindle out a little bit and gain some extra clearance. I wouldn't go too far though, or even c/c plates won't bring your tire back far enough. I'm almost certainly going to have to get them now myself. I really wish I would have thought this out more beforehand. Hell, I didn't even clamp anything in a vice, I just tore into it with a hand drill.....

For the good news now. The car looks bada$$ now. I have 1.75 inches btween the tire and the fender and still have another inch of adjustment left on the coils. It looks almost weird because I've gotten used to it sitting on 18" jackstands. I plan on putting 24.5x4.5 skinnies on it that should drop the whole frontend another .75 to 1 inch. Should look sweet. Hopefully the air dam will be almost sing the road...