I have no idea what that even is, nor would I have any clue what car I could even use as a donor. See above comment about using domestic engines due to familiarity.
So I pulled the wheels off the car last night to get a good look at what I'm in for.
Ok, I'll admit it...I had never really looked at the car before deciding this might be a fun road to go down. Turns out I should have looked at the car first, lol.
No way the stock rear struts are going to work with driven axles back there. Maybe I could swap them for front struts, and build a mount off the axle? Whichever way I would go, a solid rear is going back there, not IRS. Fuel filler, and likely the gas tank as well, would be in the way. Most likely would replace with fuel cell in the trunk area.
I think I could reuse the lower control arm mounts, but I have no clue what I would do for uppers (I seriously doubt the strut would live long trying to keep the axle housing from twisting up), maybe a radius arm setup, or torque arm mounted to the trans, similar to a 3rd/4th gen Camaro/Firebird setup.
As for the front, I see no reason why I could keep the stock front suspension setup, just installing an outer stub to keep the wheel bearing together, and possibly changing to a higher spring rate to accomodate any extra weight up front if needed. I think attempting to retain both a manual trans and power brakes isn't going to happen...that brake booster would get in the way. If I did go with the Mustang rear end, I have no clue yet how I would tackle the increased track width to match on the front, nor the bolt pattern difference issue. Bolt pattern issue might be taken care of just by running staggered wheels/tires, so it wouldn't matter at that point. Ideally though, would probably get a rear end narrowed, and redrilled to match the Capri pattern, so I could use stock wheels.
Ideally, I'd probably switch to an auto trans, and ditch the power brakes. Would probably ditch the A/C as well, and give myself a little more room up front to work with if I come up short.
Looks like I should have plenty of room under the dash to enlarge the exhaust tunnel to handle a bellhousing as needed, perhaps even to route exhaust down it as well.
I'm sure there will be plenty of other little things too, these are just the major ones that jumped out at me right away. The more I think about it, the more I keep going back to "at least start with something that began life as a RWD vehicle....."
There are a couple of Chevettes for sale near me on Craigslist, lol.
[ December 09, 2010, 11:56 PM: Message edited by: Rocketman ]