1" Front Sway Bar Installed

 I had a double header tonight, but stopped off at my parents house to do some body work, sanding and I had my older brother install the new 1" front sway bar. I bought it from CJ's late last week since it was their "Daily Special" for $96.01 with no shipping charges. It's produced by Scott Drake and the bushings are poly urethane.

 

Left- 1" Scott Drake, Right- Stock '66

I had purchased a new front end kit that included new rubber bushings and end links for the stock sway bar which are pictured below. The rubber bushings have been on for about a year and they are already starting to deteriorate.

Stock '66 Mustang Front Sway Bar

1" Sway Bar by Scott Drake

Stock '66 Sway Bar

1" Sway Bar by Scott Drake 

Calvin found that the bushings that mounted between the bottom of the lower control arm and the upper control arm had about 1/2" of free play because the way they were designed. Instead of being slightly tapered, they had a ring that sat about 1/4" above the top of each bushing. Since the two 1/4" pieces faced each other, it seemed to cause a problem. The pieces that went on the ends of the sway bar were identical, but worked perfectly because they sway bar had some thickness to it and the bushings sat inside the sway bar perfectly. The stock rubber bushings did not have the 1/4" part sticking up. I used an air grinder to flatten out the lower bushings for both sides of the sway bar  (4 in all) and they sat perfectly flush without the additional play. Another thing that I found odd was that the stock sway bar end bolts were about twice as thick/heavy as the ones that came with the 1" sway bar. Of course I used the stock end bolts, but still kept the aftermarket ones along with the original sway bar.

As I mentioned, I did some body work and block sanding this afternoon. I sanded more of the body filler along the rocker panel and finally filled a small ding on the top of the passenger side fender. I also blocked the rear passenger quarter panel and found a couple of low spots. Only one really needs to be filled and the others are minor enough to fill with the high build primer. I hope to get some work done on the car on Saturday morning before heading up to see Leslie for her birthday in the mountains.