Keep going!  I am a fan of backyard innovation!

Greg

Might be helpful:

http://6263meteor.proboards.com/thread/428/2003-cobra-irs-1963-meteor


 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=607606

Greg

JEM on the H.A.M.B. wrote:

Ford's had a few different IRS designs, the MN12/FN10 Thunderbird/Lincoln Mark VIII you're referring to here, the '03-04 Mustang Cobra, the Lincoln LS, etc.

As for the MN12 setup, it's pretty wide, and quite bulky, and you need to pay attention to what parts you're getting (most V6 'Birds had a 7.5in diff and stinky drum brakes, the Thunderbird SCs had iron 8.8s and discs, the Lincolns had aluminum 8.8s with lousy 3.07 open diffs but had aluminum lower control arms and air bags where the 'Birds had cast-iron lower control arms...) and it's a Ford so almost everything was NLA'ed by Ford at least a decade ago, it always amazes me that you can get parts for 20-year-old BMWs with no trouble but any post-1980 Ford is always a disaster. 

Not entirely HAMB-able but if you insist...



'64 Country Sedan frame with modified MN12 Thunderbird SC subframe (the front legs had to be narrowed and lowered to mate up properly to the Galaxie frame, easy once I made the jig to do it, unlike some of the truck conversions I'm retaining the original rubber mounts), Mark VIII aluminum lower control arms, '02 Explorer 8.8 rear cover, fabricated rear diff mount with E39 BMW bushings, everything tacked for trial-fitting...



Subframe is bulky enough that there's bugger-all room for the stock gas tank here, I'm planning to do a fabricated aluminum tank under the driveshaft in front of the subframe similar to the MN12 'Bird and a lot of other late-model products. 



The 285/40-18 tires look pretty small once the car's back on its wheels, it's not all that low, 6 3/4in from ground to frame as it's set up here.  Note that the IRS is just about exactly 3in wider hub-to-hub than

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