Got everything but the rear Ford Racing lower control arms. They will be here tomorrow. Everything looks good. The Ford GT500 front LCAs are a thing of beauty. They are stout. And they do have the heat shield mounting points. I would like to give props to Blue Oval Industries. What a great transaction I had with them. Highly recommended. I was surprised that the Konis all came individually with no packing just in the Koni boxes. Everything appears to be ok but the struts poked holes through both cartons. They should have been boxed a little better IMHO. Now a waiting game as unless I try and tackle it tomorrow the weather is calling for rain the next 7 days. Realistically it shouldn't take very long to do but I am doing it on my driveway. Motorcycles, sports, and life has taken a toll on my 65 year old body and working at ground level is going to suck.
Welcome to old age.... regarding the LCA's. You're going to want to bolt on the shields before mounting them and install them so they shield the inner part of the rear hydro bearing/bushing. Get the bolts needed online. You need 6 of 'em. Funny, they're actually more expensive than the shields. All in all you'll probably spend about 4 - 6 hrs getting the old LCA's/Struts/Shocks out and the new one's in. If you have a long breaker bar with a tube (or friend) for leverage do so because the front LCA bolts are a bitch to break loose. Once you get them out however things will go pretty fast provided you have all of the tools necessary and not too much rust to deal with. I'd spray some penetrate oil on all of the nuts/bolts you need to remove after you get it up off of the ground. Plenty of YouTube vids to review first for pointers/short cuts. Good luck.
Very first thing to unbolt, once the wheels are off, are the sway bar endlinks. Those are usually give me trouble. They are not big or require high torque, but they corrode and just don't want to loosen.
I'm hoping that the bolts will be good enough to reuse once I pull them and the shields off my current LCAs. I think I read that they are self tapping. Murphys law will probably snap them in two when I try to remove them.
The small bolts used on the shields are self-tapping. Shouldn't really be a problem getting them out and moving them over. Regarding the front bolts for the LCAs - You should be able to reuse them. Other than acting as a pivot point for the front of the LCA I wouldn't worry about load carrying or staying tight. They're pretty stout. Just a bitch to break loose. If you have good air and a heavy duty air gun that should help. On my son's car (07) I actually took it to a dealer due to rust. They got them out but had to use a torch and replaced the bolts on both sides of course. Cost me enough but I don't have many of the tools that a dealer does when things decide to be difficult. When I changed out the LCA bolts in my car (06) I used a long 1/2" breaker bar plus a tube that I slipped over the end for leverage. Took a couple of try's to get them to move but finally did. No rust to deal with on my car; they're just in there tight.
I got Moog inner and outer tie rods and Moog sway bar end links. I have a compressor and big impacts if needed. CA car so not any rust to speak of. Everything does look dry and foreboding though. This is the only website I visit that I cannot simply upload images from my computer or I would post picks of the rebuild. I am waiting for this storm to pass and hopefully temps in the 60s at least in the morning for some added flexibility!
There is no function I could find that let me load a pic right from my computer. It is asking for a URL. I assume I would need to use an image loading service online?
If you have been using the little 'photo' icon above the text box, I think I see the issue... When you go to reply/post, look at the area below the text box. Select 'Upload a File'. On my phone it goes straight to my pics. It does not ask for a url.
I don't know how you guys work, since I had trouble of suspension nuts got loose, I mark the torqued bolts with a paint marker. Than I can see immediately if they are ok during inspection. Especially when I reuse them without loctite.
