Suspension Detailing Guide

[Special Ed]

From my reseach the c70z a and b 4 rivet uppers were cutback in 68 1/2 for tire clearance for the cj cars new f-70-14 polyglas and e-70-15 polyglas Shelby tires and continued into all 69 mustangs cougars except for the 69 boss and f-60-15 Shelby cars. Then having front 2 rivet holes cracking from weakening after trimming the a -arm back for tire clearance ford then redesigned the upper arm in 70 and up to new 3 rivet type.

[TLea]

+1

[shelbydoug]

From my reseach the c70z a and b 4 rivet uppers were cutback in 68 1/2 for tire clearance for the cj cars new f-70-14 polyglas and e-70-15 polyglas Shelby tires and continued into all 69 mustangs cougars except for the 69 boss and f-60-15 Shelby cars. Then having front 2 rivet holes cracking from weakening after trimming the a -arm back for tire clearance ford then redesigned the upper arm in 70 and up to new 3 rivet type.

What does the "cut back design" look like?

[CharlesTurner]

What does the "cut back design" look like?
[/quote]

There should be a pic in Marcus's detailing guide, link on page 1 of this thread.

[shelbydoug]

What does the "cut back design" look like?

There should be a pic in Marcus's detailing guide, link on page 1 of this thread.
[/quote]

OK. Got it. Thanks.

[Special Ed]

The upper 4 rivet a-arm was metal sheared off around the 2 outer corners by the rivets for more tire clearance. The metal in that area was a rolled over lip around the ball joint but after the metal was trimmed off it was  weakened by the 2 outer rivets leaving only about a 1/4'' flat metal left between rivet and edge of metal so removing the wider rolled down metal lip greatly weakened that area leaving a crack between rivet and outer edge of metal. Most if these cutback arms have to  have crack welded up before restoring them.

[anghelrestorations]

I haven't checked in with the forum here in a while and just seeing the comments here.  I had to go back thru my notes and I did actually make a mistake here so its good that everyone commented.  I misread the MPC for the cutback upper control arms and this was something introduced in 1968, and not earlier than that.  I will revise the suspension guide with that information.

The August 1968 MPC below shows and comments that the cutback upper control arms (C70Z-3082-C) were introduced in 1968 when the CJ cars came out.  I will add to that (others can comment) that you will see the cutback arms on not just Cobra Jet cars but also non Cobra Jet cars during that time frame. 

Also posting some photos here of an NOS cutback upper control arm showing the -C sticker. 

IMG_2372 (2) by Marcus Anghel, on Flickr

IMG_2358 by Marcus Anghel, on Flickr

IMG_2361 (1) by Marcus Anghel, on Flickr

IMG_2363 by Marcus Anghel, on Flickr

[shelbymann1970]

My late Jan 1968 Shelby had all the original suspension on it and it had the standard non cutback arms on it so it followed suit. Gary

[anghelrestorations]

Updated the article on my website and the link in this thread as well with changes.