Mustang II IFS Ride Quality VS S10 Swap

[mr48chev]

It still comes down to exactly what you want your truck to be in the end and how much money and time you plan to put into it. Plus do you want to recover most of what you spent on the build if you sell it within three years or so.

Most of us have admit that we have spent a few hours watching Mecom or Barrett-Jackson auctions. The one thing you never see or will see is those talking heads gushing over the Wunnerful S-10 chassis an AD truck rolling across the platform has on those shows. If an S-10 swap is even allowed in the auction it sells on Monday or Tuedsay with the other driver quality low buck rigs.
Since the mid 90's when guys figured out that they could often drag a broke down S-10 long bed work truck out of someone's yard for free or not much more than beer money and roll the cab and bed off, make some cab mounts and set their AD cab and bed on and have a low buck driver in short order for a small investment and not that much work it has picked up speed. Now guys thinking that you have to run an S-10 chassis to be one of the Facebook truck cool guys will pay 2 or 3 K for a running driving truck that is actually a lot nicer than the AD that they have to get the frame and then spend 1500+ to buy the kit that FB commandos say they have to have and by the time they rebuilt the front suspension or swapped to longer tube control arms and an upgrade front brake kit plus swapping the narrow S-10 rear for a wider rear and then deciding that they want run a 4 link rather than the leaf spring they have 6 K or better in an S-10 swap that Joedoe does for less than the cost of a decent motel room for a weekend at a Goodguys show. Meaning that if you are building a low dollar great driving truck and aren't going to put a 10K paint job on it or a 10K interior in it and the build consists of a decent AD cab and sheet metal, S-10 chassis, engine of choice but not a high dollar crate motor and the big expense of the build is the wheels and tires life is great. If you are going to Make a long list of changes to the S-10 chassis and do real nice paint and interior you are better off with the original 3100 frame and the MII front end of choice plus a rearend and rear suspension of choice.

One thing, if you do an S-10 swap buy a complete dead truck with a title so you can prove that you came by the chassis legally or buy the chassis from a legit source where you actually get a receipt from a business rather than buying it from one of those guys who advertises them on FB or other places and you have no idea of how they came by the truck they took the chassis out of. You do not want the law showing up in your driveway to impound your truck because they tracked a stolen truck's chassis to your garage. It's a lot simpler to buy the dead truck with title, take it home, harvest what you want off it, make a photo copy of the title for your build book, haul the hulk to the scrap yard, hand them the title and get paperwork from them that shows that you hauled a titled cab into them and put that paperwork in with the copy of the title for show and tell at inspection time.

While we are at it, Subframe swaps be they Camaro/firebird or cut off something else are pretty well obsolete 80's technology from the time we could pack a Camaro subframe home for 100 bucks before the S-10 swap came into vogue. I've done two of my own on my 48 and the 51 Mercury I used to own and they do drive fantastic but you have to cut and trim so much front end sheet metal to get them to fit that it just isn't worth it anymore. Plus the restorers have run the cost of decent Camaro subframe up to where you are spending too much money trying to save money. There are just better ways now.

Ive been out of the loop on MII front suspension but do like the Fatman setup with the way the control arms mount. They won't get knocked out of alignment by bumping a small pot hole and are a lot easier to align. YOu just have to sort though the offerings to see what fits your needs and budget. I do like the bolt on crossmembers for guys who don't have the welding skills, and may not have the time or space to do other chasiss mod methods. The crossmember is a bit more than a weld in but you can roll the truck in the garage pull the nose off and unbolt the stock suspension, measure and drill a few holes and bolt in place on a long Saturday and pretty well have the truck back together with the MIi front end under it by Sunday night. All with a tape measure, 1/2 inch drill and hand tools.

I really like the Crossmember that Industrial chassis makes for using Dakota front suspension on an AD or TF or Ford. The cost of the crossmember has gone up to around 1000 if you can even get one though. The outfit that Steve went to work for who was supposed to also build his crossmembers doesn't seem to be making many of them. I missed out on getting one when he had his own shop. https://www.industrialchassisinc.com...ota-based-ifs/

I already had the "big brake rotors" they mention with a Ford 5 on 5-1/2 bolt pattern that would match the 9 inch I have and mess with the Les Schwab tire dudes when I roll in with a F150 lug bolt pattern and Ford truck 15 inch steelies. That 1000 bucks is holding me back right now though.

I've also got a Jag XJ front end in the stash that is the exact right width wms to wms , has good brakes with 4 pistion calipers and is built for a 4000 lb performance car. Parts can be spendy if you don't shop dilligently but the original buy in is still pretty low.

There are a lot of options out there some better than others and as long as you get value for your investment life is good. We can't all afford a Morrision or Roadster shop chassis.

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

Most of us have admit that we have spent a few hours watching Mecom or Barrett-Jackson auctions. The one thing you never see or will see is those talking heads gushing over the Wunnerful S-10 chassis an AD truck rolling across the platform has on those shows.

the other thing i have never seen is any of the garage built MII rides going across the stage. those ALSO sell with the cheap rides on monday. the ones that get the coverage are the big name builder trucks with 95% of the selling price invested. I am not building those, and neither are you, nor anyone else on this forum outside of hogtied.

so potato pottato, you can talk at length about how cheap the s10 route is, how its worth more money to do MII, or dakota, but it doesnt really mean anything until you actually put a grinder to metal and start doing it.

No one ever had "I'm gonna" carved on their tombstone but by golly everyone who ever bashed one way or another of doing a project sure says it every third sentence


the fatman IFS is gorgeous and solves a lot of the MII problems. its also 4k+ shipping, just as a data point.