TORQUE BOXES/AXLE TUBE HOUSINGS
Another thing that we Mustang owners must do is strenghten our torque boxes, uppers and lowers. This is mandatory
for drag racers or road racers (unless you're using a torque arm) due to using a drag radial, ET street, or slicks
(or if you change your control arms to polyurethane bushings or solid bushings. The torque boxes often will rip off
the car when slicks are run at the track, at a minimum, the sheet metal will distort and fatigue from the continuous abuse
of racing and eventually fail. The best way to solve your torque box blues is to have them fully welded, top and bottom,
and to plate the bottom of the lowers. This is not something that we would recommend having done at a muffler
shop, the body filler & paint must be prep'd before welding and the rear end must hang free. This process has been
proven to work on all drag and road racing Mustangs (David Wolfe of Wolfe Racecraft has been doing this process for over 10
years and they haven't had one car come back with damage to the torque boxes) and it worked on my Mustang and I shock
my tires really hard on the launch! The after market replacement boxes are not necessary, getting them fully welded
is the best solution. (If you have already damaged your torque boxes, we can repair them.)
Another thing that is a must is getting your axle tubes welded, they come from the factory spot welded in a couple
places on each tube (I guess Ford was trying to save money). When you start putting the power to the ground, all that
energy has to go somewhere. If your axle tubes are not welded, over time you will twist them right out of
the housings (we've seen it done). Usually it requires you to take the rear end out of the car to make sure the housings
stay straight during welding, but here at Big Boy Racing Fabrication we have a process that allows the rear end to stay
in the car and both axle tube housings can be fully welded 100%. Getting your torque boxes and axle tubes fully welded is preventive
maintenance. Now that you have your torque boxes and axle tube housings fully welded and plating the lower boxes, you
can go to the track and beat on your car with a piece of mind and not have to worry about coming home on a flat bed!
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