Strut Rods

I left off previously talking about the issues I had with the Global West strut rods.  Before i get into it, let me clarify that the Global West strut rods are very high quality units, I was extremely impressed with their engineering and quality.  The issue I had is I ordered mine from Summit Racing for a 1971 Mustang.  As it turns out, Global West does not make strut rods for a 1971, the latest they go is 1970.  I did not know this at the time I ordered them.  By the time I had discovered the problem, I had owned these strut rods for almost a year, so it was too late by Summit's return policy to get my money back.  I would be hit with a 20% restocking charge.  So I called Global West.  They were not sure, but thought that the 1970 strut rods are the same length as the 1971, so all I would need to do is turn down the spacer on the front clevis to make them fit.

I didn't take pictures of the full process, but here are some.  I took a measurement of the hole in the front frame where the forward clevis mounts.  By my measurements I needed to turn down the spacer by 0.030".  Here is a pic of the forward frame.

 I turned down the spacer by jigging it up on my drill press, spinning it at 3000 rpm, and using a grinding stone to work them down.  It took about 30 minutes a spacer since they appear to be hard steel, and I would take breaks to let them cool.  Here is a view of the mount with the back side of the clevis pin and the turned down spacer going in.

 Picture of the port side (left) clevis installed.  As I said, it is a nice high quality part.  Too bad they did not work.

And here is the end result with the strut rods installed.  This pic was taken with the rod fully collapsed resulting with the wheel being as far forward in the wheel well as possible.  As you can see in this pic, the wheel is still too far back in the wheel well.  My first indication that the Global West strut rods for a 1970 will not work in a 1971.

Instead of trying to further mod the Global West strut rods, I decided to buy a set from Street & Track built for the 1971 Mustang.  Here is a pic as they arrived.  Another well engineered and high quality part.

This pic shows the Global West strut rod (on the right) next to the Street & Track strut rod (on the left).  Both are high quality units, but he Global West seems to be of heavier construction.

Close up shot of the clevis end of the strut rods.

Close up of the lower control arm mount side of the strut rods.

The Street & Track strut rods were very easy to install, no mods needed.  Again, the Global West strut rods would be real easy if one were installing them in the car they were designed for.  The pic below is with them installed and at about the middle of their adjustment range.  The wheel location in the wheel well looks much better now.  It's amazing what the right parts can do.

The test drive with the Street & Track strut rods went well, they seem to work and are a great improvement over the stock units.  Now I have a set of slightly used Global West strut rods that I want to sell.  I paid $380 for them from Summit.  A 20% restocking charge is $76.  Since these are good units I would much rather sell them to a fellow hot rodder for about $300.  That way I get most of my investment back, and the buyer gets a great part at a significant discount.  In fact, since I turned down the spacers and they will probably need to be replaced, I'll go even a bit lower on the price.