FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

As of January 2020, we are changing the business to offer fewer part numbers and make all efforts to make “better parts”.  We have 600 molds and as tough as it is, we are reducing the offering to 40 part numbers. As we have been a small business, trying to produce something for everyone at any time has not been realistic.  Our offering will be 1965, 66, 67, 68… a few 69-70 and a few Fox body parts.  It may not happen in a month but we strive to be without question the best place to buy the parts we sell.

This question or answer gets better with time. On one hand the 1965 Mustang was made in 14 locations where tooling was different and the final fit was in 14 locations. So, striving for perfection is “not” realistic. HOWEVER…. I am finding because “our” parts & molds have been hand made… done by eye- We have made mistakes and some things are not perfectly square. I.. Charles Maier, intend to get the parts we make this year (2020) much closer to plumb & square. In the past 6 years we have improved many designs but we are not as good as we can be. Feel free to ask us about whatever parts you may be concerned with. Our goal is to make great parts and if there are not up to your expectations, please communicate to us.

**This answer can be used for most classic Mustangs but, this particular answer is for a 1965-6 Mustang.

Here is a short list of components that we would suggest you focus on.

-Your best value dollar for dollar is going to be with the biggest (good) tire and wheel combination you can fit. Flares will often help but if they are not for you, get the MOST you can under that car. Use good rubber, Bridgestone RE 11, or Falken Azenis. 18″ x 8″ – 12″ if possible.  These tires are DOT tires but we have used them for auto-crossing and track days.

-Great springs and shocks. Don’t go cheap here! We have spent a huge amount of time figuring out our leaf springs and shocks. We sell the 600lbs front coils and the 165 lbs rear race leafs. We recommend dropping the car at least 1” if not a little more. Do the Shelby drop on the front Upper A arm (If you buy the 1″ drop spindle we sell and use an 18″ wheel for example you may not need to do the Shelby drop unless you need the extra travel in the shock). We can guide you on this if needed. We sell the Bilstein front and rear steel body shocks for a realistic price. These are valved (designed) to be used with our springs. Our springs (rear leafs) are 4 1/2 leafs, mid eye wrap in the front eye and we recommend using the polyurethane front bushings. We can say that it will knock out at least 90% of any wheel hop issues you may have. Some folks ask about traction bars… In 30 years I have not seen a car leave Maier Racing with a set of traction bars. THROW them out- Save your money, they are used to cover up cheap springs and shocks that don’t perform.

-Good sway bars, bushings and NEW rubber where you can is key for a solid platform. We recommend that most people buy the 1 1/8” front sway bar with the polyurethane bushing kit. Rear sway bars have their place but I would put them down the list of priorities if you are on a budget.

-Quality upper and lower control arms are important if you are pushing the limits. We do NOT sell stock replacement upper and lower control arms. We sell modified arms or our own design Gen 3 upper A arm, intended to be used in abusive conditions. We offer the coil over kit and the modified stock arms. The modified kit is slightly cheaper than the full coil over kit. Details about them will be covered later.

-Highly recommend.. the chassis stiffening kit! Any or all that you can. The Sub-frame connectors, Shock tower brace and the Z brace are all components that fit in easy/simple locations. The car you are working on is roughly 50 years old! If you are going to plan to push the car a bit, it will need support to deal with the handling, power options today, the braking, the great rubber that the cars can really stick to the road. All the aftermarket components put the frame to the test and frankly beyond what the car was originally capable of; support it. Our sub-frame connectors are intended to be welded in. The holes in the brackets are for welding locations. The shock tower brace is a bolt on product. The Z brace is only for lowered cars. It will interfere with the drive shaft on cars that are stock height. Exhaust may also need to be tucked up tighter on some cars using the Z brace. The Z brace has 4 tabs to be welded into the Maier Sub-frame connectors. The 3 individual aluminum tubes are adjustable and removable for getting to the transmission and or the exhaust.

Maier Racing no longer sells the “extreme rear suspension” we once did in 2012, 2013 & 2014 period.  It was a learning process for us.  The kit was $8,500+/- and then another $4,000 for the install.  We sold 5 kits a year or so.  Yes it was cool, yet it came at a price.  Most of our customers are not able or willing to spend $12-15,000 on the rear suspension.  While there are a few companies in this market (Mustangs 1965-70 Pro Tour) that make 3 link or 4 link suspension kits.  We are not offering that route for our customers.  Our view is that a 3 link or 4 link suspension is still ideal “IF”… “IF”… it is proven and sorted out.  Keep in mind, if a company offers a 3 or 4 link rear suspension, they are selling (out of a catalog) -it is a kit that they are trying to offer you that is “universal”.  That means they have not developed it around YOUR Tires, Power plant, Transmission, etc…. Even bigger, it is not always sold in conjunction with the front suspension.  The front and the back of the car work together.  Which means you will need to install it and tweak with it to get it right.  Buyer be aware..

The typical customer of Maier Racing is interested in spirited driving, auto crossing and track days.  Roughly 5% of our customers have open ended budgets.  Of that 5% that have open budgets, most of them don’t work on their own cars.  They have another shop do the work.  Most of those shops do not know much about suspension and set up.  They know how to follow instructions and install kits.  90% of the people that work on Pro Touring cars do not know how to set up a car…  They know how to buy and fabricate parts.  I can say this openly because I/we have been in this group for many years (Charles Maier).  I have been involved in Racing my entire life, literally and I have learned a lot.  I know that it is smart to start with a good baseline and modify (eyes wide open) 1 thing at a time.  I have had “many” late night beers, brain storming the greatest ideas for the car.  At the end of the day, if you want a package that works, go with simple and predictable.

We sell the 165 leafs, a simple panhard rod kit that is easy to install and basically 2 -3 shock options.  For the rear of the car, we offer packages in the range of $1,200 to $2,000 (shocks being the biggest variable).  Bilstein steel body gas shocks at $100/each are recommended for 200-300hp.  From 300-500 hp is a discussion/reviewing the end result/goal.  From 500hp on… Our view is you MUST spend money on quality shocks.  This means a minimum of $325 each shock.  This is for a “non adjustable” good quality rear shock.

The leaf spring set up works.  We have it running on cars with 750+ horse power.  The basic design has been working in the Ford Mustang for 50 years.  Our package has been tested for more than 35 years, modified and adjusted to work in numerous conditions.  It may not be the answer for ALL cars and ALL cases but this is great value!!  Call us for more details as needed.

If you are on a budget you can avoid it initially. It really depends on your end result. If you plan to autocross or do track days, I would plan on getting it. If you are a weekend warrior on a budget, you can get it eventually. The kit is designed to mount from the rear end housing to the frame (both sides). It sets the “roll center” of the rear end of the car. During cornering the chassis wants to roll and the panhard rod kit maintains the chassis over the top of the rear end housing. The panhard bar is adjustable and if you raise it or lower it you can manipulate the over or under-steer of the car by adjusting the “roll center”. Up will be loose, down will tighten the nature of the car’s performance. Tight means the car will push more in the corner. Loose means the car will over steer more (in the back end, sliding out). Our current kit, May 2015, was designed this past 6 months in conjunction with Chris Alston aka Total Control Products. We took our 2 versions that we have been selling for 15 years or so to him and said, let’s make this better! This kit is designed to be installed with some welding. There is flexibility in the design so it fits most chassis from 1964-1970. Our older kits had fixed mounting points that required being hammered on to fit. The rear sway bar is a total bolt on unit. Our older design required welding to the rear end housing. It is offered with 2 spring plates that are much more substantial than than the stock plates. The shock plates also have Big eyes for tie downs for towing. 2 1/2” exhaust is acceptable in most cars.

If you have the NEW panhard rod kit, we offer a sway bar to go with that. Rear sway bars are helpful. That said, we have found that you can not say the rear sway bar is good and helpful in ALL cases! For example, if you are auto-crossing on a loose asphalt surface or wet weather, I would recommend disconnecting the sway bar. If you are competing on a concrete surface with a lot of grip, use the sway bar, it will likely be helpful.

With flares you can get almost all you want. That said, in the PRO Touring scene, many people are going for the stock appearance look. For the 1965-70 Mustangs we offer a relatively NEW 2 1/4” front fender that has the flare built in by pulling out the front fender in conjunction with the lip of the flare. They LOOK REALLY stock in appearance and require a keen eye to tell that they are “not stock” fenders! In most cases the limiting factor now becomes the spindle height; getting the wheel inboard over the upper ball joint. It is realistic to go for a 18” x 10” 275 in the front. We sell a fiberglass rear flare to match for the 1965-66 cars. We do not have a perfect match for the rears (yet) 1967-70. That said, the 65 rear flare can be modified to work or rolling the back metal flare is often done; as we did on the Blue coup here at the shop. In the rear, we have recently (Winter of 2016-17) set up  (2) 1965-66 FB cars with 18″ x 11″ wheels on 315 tires.  Both cars had leaf springs.  One was mini-tubbed and the other was not.  We found that with the leafs the mini tub was a big effort with basically NO gain.  There is a small notch in the front corner of the wheel well that can be notched and that is …it!  When you mini tub the car, you need to redo the interior and the leaf spring is “in the way” of using all the new space.  With our 2″ flare you can achieve a 315.  Call about the details, otherwise this may be a short novel…  Or email us: [email protected]

In more than 20 years we have not sent a car out of here with Traction Bars.  Keep in mind “we” are preparing cars for auto-crossing, track days/road courses and vintage racing as well as spirited street driving.  We do not normally set up cars here for drag racing suspensions.  Traction bars for these applications (in “most” cases of 1965-70 Ford Mustangs) are installed to cover for a component that is not working properly or up for the task.  Essentially a Band-Aide!  If you are drag racing and that is your sole agenda, they may or may not work.  Our experiences for drag racing tell us a good set of leaf springs with great shocks are the key.  The biggest down side to Traction bars is that Traction bars limit the rotation of the suspension travel.  Ideally we want the suspension to freely go through it’s range of travel at a controlled rate.  The shocks control the rate in which things move.  There should be not components that inhibit this range of motion.  If the leaf spring is fatigued (old) and you are putting 400 horsepower through the rear-end, the leafs will no doubt struggle and wheel hop will ensue.  Our Maier Racing 165L (1″ lower than standard ride height) are very well tested and developed.  You can buy springs for 1/2 the price but our leafs eliminate wheel hop in 90% of the case with the help of our Bilstein rear shocks and new bushings.  For cars with 300/400+ horse power, we suggest running the Integra shocks.  They can repeat the control (run after run or lap after lap) and can be re-valved if you have ongoing issues you are chasing.

Wheel hop is normally when the acceleration or the braking is too aggressive for the tired leaf springs or the wrong leaf spring or bad shocks.  NEW shocks or springs can be ill mannered.  Many people sell a 4 1/2 leaf spring and still have issues.  The design can just be wrong for performance driving.  If the spring is not stable under hard acceleration it will not do it’s job.  If the shocks are cheap and not designed to handle 300-500+ Hp, they will not maintain the balance of the power coming from the drive line to the tire.  Keep in mind the rubber and power used in these cars in 2015 is far better than the tire and power these cars came with in the 60’s.  Again, quality shocks and springs will handle 90% of any wheel hop issues.  Our springs are NOT cheap but they work.  We have a ton of R&D and experience getting these springs right.  The Bilstein shocks are great value for $100 each.  We sold thousands of Koni twin tube shocks in the 70’s & 80’s…  The technology in these Bilsteins are a considerable graduation from the technology used 20+ years ago.  So in most cars $750 for leafs, shocks and  some bushings will get you 90% there.

NEW information on power plants in excess of 600+ HP..  We have been developing an upgrade for folks that have serious power trains of 600-800 HP.  We are using Integra rear shock that has the bayonet mount on the top and “eyelet” mount on the bottom.  We had to customize the spring plates to make them work but the change was simple.   Email or call in and we’ll get you rolling.  To use the Integra shocks, we now have clevices that we offer where you can bolt up the Inegra shocks.  Be sure to mention clevices if you get the upgrade. We have a customer now in Arizona that has a 750 HP big block in his 1967 NB…….. no wheel hop or tire shake.  It is “not” big money and not intricate.

To be honest this is a tough question for me (Charles Maier) to answer.  I have seen SO many versions of the same thing in a “new” color, I am foggy in the head to explain how it has all come to what we offer now-  #1 OUR KIT IS NOT THE BEST KIT YOU CAN BUY….  What is the BEST???  Best for what use???  There are 25+ groups now selling Ford Mustang suspension.  To get you to buy their kit, they will tell you they sell the BEST!!  I say, “Best for WHAT”?  Drag racing, auto crossing, road racing, unlimited budget, Rally, Endurance, Track days, cruising, etc.. the “tech babble begins”….

We sell a very simple coil over kit that is now the 3rd generation of something that started 6-8 years ago.  The upper A arm is the BEST- I can imagine for a stock location upper A arm mount, supporting the coil over spring and shock.  It is a gorgeous set of laser cut sheet metal plates, bent and TIG welded.  I can tell you that hand welding these somewhat precision parts are NO easy task.  By design, the arm locates the shock as low as possible to get the MOST travel possible when lowering the car & maintaining shock travel.  The sheet metal design is meant to be as stiff as possible with least amount of unnecessary material.  The shaft is 17-4 stainless steel, 2-3x stronger than the mild steel we used to use.  The ball joint is positioned to have full range of motion when the car is lowered.  The arm fits the shock tower better than our other designs.  The upper A arm is totally rebuild-able.  The shock top maximizes the travel on the top side of the travel nearest the hood.  The shocks are full on race proven Integra shocks from Port City racing in Michigan and the springs are now PAC springs (known for extreme high end valve springs).  The shocks can be valved for all kinds of end uses.  This kit is great for the spirited street, auto crossing, Pro Touring, track days where you are going for simple stock locations used, good geometry that works in these conditions.  Uses a 15″ x 8 rim/tire/street to a 18 x 315 tire/slick.  Keeping the stock shock towers in place with basically no mods necessary in the installation.

Ideally you will buy the 1” drop spindle.  This drop spindle is available no-where else.  This is a sheet metal and mild steel tube product.  This is great for mounting up in the stock locations, stock ball joints.  Gain 1″ of travel in your lowered car.  The steering has been quickened by 3/8″.  If you really want to get the bump steer right, this is a good place to start as you can weld to this if you like (unlike the forged steel spindles on your car now).  If you run 18″ wheels, you can increase the back spacing up to 6.25″.  It uses the 70-73 BIG snout and mounts up to a basic Wilwood 12″ rotor, 6 piston caliper assembly.

Maintain your travel when lowering, beat on this for track use with-out ill mannered parts that break after a hard weekend of driving….  This is polar opposite to the Mustang II street rod kits available.  The Maier Racing kits are NOT sold though dealers at this time.  You are dealing direct with the guys that made it and use it-  You are paying for hand made parts refined to work, clean and simple. “CM”

Well, we have been making Fiberglass parts from 1971.  This does not mean that we have it all figured out today but we have made thousands of parts and designs as we currently offer parts from roughly 400 molds.   80% of our offering is to fit 1965-1970 Ford Mustangs.  We offer Fox body parts, flares for 94-98 and 99-04.  We have 2 body kit options 2005-09.  We bond fiberglass to metal parts regularly.  The materials can work together.  That said, some parts work better than others.  Rear flares for the quarters are the best bonded parts.  Big surface area to bond and temperature changes are limited there.  Hoods are not the greatest for bonding fiberglass to metal.  Some of our customers want us to make fiberglass hoods with metal inner frames.  This location of the car goes through a lot of heating up and cooling down.  The materials don’t normally live well when the heat and cooling varies so much.  Metal/steel does not expand much.  Fiberglass moves much more comparatively speaking.  From 70F to 200F steel may grow .001″ or less.  Fiberglass may grow as much as .010″ from 70F- 200F.  Imagine the entire hood expanding and contracting each day in this heat range; it will eventually have issues.

We get calls all the time about fiberglass, asking “can it hold together or remain bonded well over time?”  The answer is YES, and it is like a good paint job… Are you using the right materials?  Is the preparation done well, right?  The surfaces must be cleaned right (Acetone is good).  Are the surfaces scuffed well for a good mechanical bond?  Make sure the resin has plenty of pot life (time to work with it before it set’s up and turns solid).  For specific questions, call in and we will do our best to guide and manage expectations.