Has any one installed struts on a factory frame rail car. If so, could you post pictures. Finally,what were the results? Were you happy, how did it work?

My car has a strut front. Self built k-frame and a-arms. There are things I would change to enhance it....like maximizing the length of the lower control arms (with a long stroke strut). Mine has 6" of travel since I use leaf springs, but I will limit travel to about 4" when I go to a 4-link. The car drives nice without any real issues and has very little bump steer (about 1/16" in the entire travel). If I wasn't forced to have the k-frame bolt in, I would have just plated the frame rails and run my tubes solid to the frame rails.

I have some pictures I could dig up if interested.

I would really appreciate some pictures if you had them. Also which brand of struts did you use? Thanks for the reply.

Oficially they are AJE parts, but I had to re-work them so extensively that I would say they are manufactured by me. You will see in the pictures....just have to find them. I will look later this evening.

Thanks - I am looking forward to seeing them!

Here are a few pics...

that looks like a cool setup

Thanks for the pictures - I really appreciate them. I have a couple of buddies that are Mustang 5.0L guys and they rant and rave about AJE. The struts on your car look like they may be 5.0L stuff? They are substantially longer than some of the other struts that I have seen. I quess that is required to get the travel we require and/or want. Just wondering what kind of brakes are on them? Thanks again for the pictures.

AJE might do ok by the Mustang guys, but he doesn't know anything about Mopar front ends. Mine was off so far that most of his parts went in the trash bin. I obviously kept the struts, but had to re-work them substancially....steering arms in wrong location, wrong angle, etc. Had to totally re-build the lower control arms so the strut wouldn't bottom out on the arm and limit travel. Rack placement was off more than 3 inches which required completely re-building the k-frame. Brakes are Wilwood, but would have preferred Strange.

Good thing I am a Mechanical Engineer and had the tools to design the front geometry properly. This stuff would have been downright scary at speed if not corrected.

To answer your question though....struts can be done on a factory frame rail car with no problem. I know that mine is super light....even when compared with tube a-arm fronts and coil overs.

I have also since added front travel limiters that are integrated into the lower control arms.

Thanks Again Brian,

I have heard that AJE Mopar stuff is not up to snuff! However, it looks like you have got it all worked out and things are working well. I was curious as to how your struts mount at the top? The reason I ask about the brakes is that I have Wilwood's on my car now and if I could save a buck by not having to re buy that stuff I would be happy.
Thanks again and it looks Great!

I would imagine that you could save alot of your brake parts and possibly get away with just new hubs to fit the required spindle?

As for the upper mounting points, they are welded to my front strut bars. I run the bars under the inner fenders and there is a single 1 1/4" hole thru the inner fender to access the top nut on the strut. I just leave a body plug in it and it isn't really very recognizable.