If you feel like going to IRS maybe a Lincoln MK VIII rear suspension set up might work,or a 94-97 Cougar/T Bird set up.
Barring that a late 99-early 2000 Crown Vic cop car (P71 in VIN) should have an 8.8 with 3.55 gears,check for traction lok in the axle code on the door sticker.
Any of those will give factory rear disc brakes,and you can grab the master cylinder at the same time.

 

I am still sorting out the PS line, but once the rest of my parts get here I will explain the tragedy of my last 2 weeks. No here is the dash panel inspired by the pictures Walston so kindly posted. Mine is not as beautiful and now I wished I had welded from the back side. I thought a nice bead around the edge would look cool, but the old and new metal didn't jive and truthishly I suck at welding thin stuff. I see bondo in my future.

Cut out the center


welded and drilled

 

Still looks pretty good. I'll probably do the same thing. Thanks to you I'll remember to weld from the back side. I can't weld anything well, let alone thin stuff

 

glad I could be of some help. last night me and the flapper disc spent some quality time together and I got the edges roughed out. I also ended up fabbing a bracket to brace up the steering column by use of the brake booster bracket. It is only bolted to the dash, now its super strong!!!

dash


closer

 

You will be able to make that look great. No shame in a little body filler.

Patience.....

 

Thanks Walston, I did a little more grinding and mixed up the bondo. After a couple hours it still hadn't dried, so I brought it in overnight. Might have been the 30 degree temps out side (not in the garage) or that the filler had probably been on the shelf for a few years....

 

Very impressive work and showing great progress!! Seeing these CV front clips in makes me want to do one of my 57's the same way.

 

Thanks custom, well the bondo did not cure and I spent part of last night scraping it out (sucks) I will wire wheel the rest of it maybe tonight and mix in more hardner. This weekend is supposed to be in the upper 50s, so maybe with a little luck I can get some paint on it then.

 

Good news!! The bondo turned out to be fine, I am just slow. $ coats of bondo WITH HARDNER and bam looking good. I forgot to take pics until I got the first coat of primer (not sanded yet)



NOw onto the PS lines.....what a cluster. So far I have give or take $150 in both lines. Going from the CV rack to a saginaw pump has been a real pain. The CV rack takes a proprietary fitting which the salvage yard didn't leave me with $45 for the pressure and $26 for the return. The return was just fine. The Pressure hose was a complete peice of garbage/

(space held for pic)

I only ended up using 3inces of that line and had NAPA make me a line with a JCI fitting on one end and a compression fitting on the other.



I had to buy an AN (same as JCI) coupler and an adapter to go from the saginaw pump (later model) 16mmx1.5mm Oring to AN to the line. Mistakes were made by myself and NAPA, I sure hope it doesn't leak..... finished line



And installed.






BTW does anyone know what 3 wires split off the middle of the bundle and head toward the engine?

 

More bondo and primer because I found some imperfections on the dash.

Anyone know what these 3 wires are for?

 

Well I think those wires are for temp/oil gen lights....so I just unplugged them. Wiring wiring wiring, nothing prettty. Oh and more bondo....

 

It's been a very slow week for progress. New 3G alt, still wiring it up.



And...what is left of the original PS pressure hose.....ridiculous.

 

Still chipping away. Wiring is 90% complete. I had a rough go around with the dash panel. I should have consulted with my father in law (airplane painter) earlier and I would have side stepped my folly. Lesson learned. After stripping all paint and primer, here we are with 2 coats o it.



I have all my gauges that I will use for now, I also adapted the old speeometer cable with the correct gear for the AOD trans and that is installed. I realized my air cleaner hits the wiper motor, so a smaller one is on order. Down to the last few items...made a bracket for the proportioning valve. Then its offf to plumb the lines and finish painting the dash, wires and BAM fire in the hole!

 

New gauges all installed. Next up to do is check the wiring, doing up the brakes and FIRE!!!

 

That is just plain nice. Good work!