With over 54 years of experience, Doug Heasman has certainly worked on a few cars and through that, has gained an immeasurable amount of hands on experience.
Each month, Doug will feature a classic car of his choice, to share his techniques on how he goes about setting up the wheel alignment. A lot of classic cars have unique suspension set ups that are either still used in modern cars, or have fallen out of production for various reasons and because of that, setting these cars up properly can often be difficult without the hands-on experience gained from many years of working in the industry.
We kick off the monthly feature with this classic Ford Mustang which was introduced to the world in 1964, the same year Doug began working for his Father; Allan J Heasman (whom founded Heasman Steering in 1948).
This particular Mustang is a 1965 Mustang V8 Hardtop (or Notchback) LHD.
The First Gen Mustangs has a solid rear axle which is not adjustable, the front however is a SLA (short-long arm) suspension, where the camber and caster is adjustable using shims
that insert where the upper control arm attaches to the chassis.
Without having to take the wheel and various other parts off the car, Doug loosens the top arm bolts and with the use of his ‘Portapower’ – pushing the top arm away from the chassis, creating enough room to insert the shims. This is often easily achieved without the use of the Portapower, and can simply be done by turning the steering wheel side to side (on other cars), however in this case, there is not enough flex in the arm at full steering lock, thus the use of the Portapower.
The Caster can be adjusted at the same time during this process. Adding shims to only one of the two connecting top arm bolts, will subsequently adjust the caster.
With the alignment all sorted out, we have another happy classic car owner, cruising the streets of Sydney!
Does your classic car need an alignment or any other steering & suspension work? call for a quote today 02 9557 3739 or email info@heasmans.com.au