Fairlane rack question

[route66]

Helloooooo guys. Found this site doing some research for my father-in-law and thought this would be a good place to get some info. My father-in-law has a 57 Fairlane 500 that we got a 72 pinto manual rack for. I need some help in figuring out how to set this dam thing up. I know there are kits made for this car but he isn't going to shell out the money for one. I'm no stranger to fabricating, but I just need to know where to start.

Questions:
1. Where does this rack need to be mounted? Front or back? The car was originally a "rear steer". We replaced the spindles and rotors with ones off a 77 or 79 T Bird that are "rear steer".

2. Anybody got any pics of a finished product to give me an idea of where to start?

3. Front or rear sump oil pan?

Thanks in advance!!!!!

[Frankenstein57]

Not sure what a pinto rack looks like, the popular rack is the chevy cavalier, I also pulled one from a pontiac sunbird. The reason is the tie rods are bolted to the center of the rack, a good fit for the 57's long tie rods. I think there are some pictures in the gallery.  Mark

[RICH MUISE]

welcome to the site. Ditto on what Mark said. I was curious where on Route66 you're at. I'm 2 blocks off old 66 in Amarillo.
Rich

[route66]

Located in Granite City, IL. just across the river from St Louis.

What year cavalier and is it installed in the front or back?

[Partsman]

The Pinto rack is a front steer and will not work on your car as you stated it is rear steer.  If you want to stay with Ford I think Escorts were rear steer.

[RICH MUISE]

Located in Granite City, IL. just across the river from St Louis.

What year cavalier and is it installed in the front or back?

My wife and I got married in Bellview (Bellville?), not too far from there when she was stationed at Scott Air Force base
Wildhog has some great pics of the set-up in the Gallery section..since you're new, let me lead the way...
click on the Gallery button on the dark blue bar attached to the top box of the home page (or any page), then click on "under construction",and scroll to the bottom of the first page, so you can click on page 3, about 1/2 way down (current location.... on this website, pictures added to the gallery are added to the front, so they never have a permanent location as they are being pushed back by newer additions)
The rack set-up you will be looking at in wildhog's pics are made by his brother in law, Sparky, also a member on this website (Yellowwagon), and,imho,are better and quite a bit cheaper than other set-ups you may have seen for our '57's. When I got mine earlier this year it was about 1K incl. shipping.

[gasman826]

My wife and I got married in Bellview (Bellville?), not too far from there when she was stationed at Scott Air Force base
Wildhog has some great pics of the set-up in the Gallery section..since you're new, let me lead the way...
click on the Gallery button on the dark blue bar attached to the top box of the home page (or any page), then click on "under construction",and scroll to the bottom of the first page, so you can click on page 3, about 1/2 way down (current location.... on this website, pictures added to the gallery are added to the front, so they never have a permanent location as they are being pushed back by newer additions)
The rack set-up you will be looking at in wildhog's pics are made by his brother in law, Sparky, also a member on this website (Yellowwagon), and,imho,are better and quite a bit cheaper than other set-ups you may have seen for our '57's. When I got mine earlier this year it was about 1K incl. shipping.

Late '90s GM (GrandAM, etc) with the rack bolted to the firewall.  You need to mimick the original tie rod length to get away from bump steer.  You will have to make custom brackets that hold the rack in the same geometry as the original drag link.

[route66]

This is what we got......

[Ford Blue blood]

I am of the opinion that setup will give you bump steer.  Draw a line from the inner pivot points of the lower control arm, your inner tie rod end should be as close to that line as possible.  The further away from that line (closer to the outter tie rod end) the more pronounced the bump steer will be.

While that is a clean looking installation I feel you will not enjoy driving the car nor the increased tire wear you will have.  Take a hard look at Gary's (gasman826) set up or look at the Borgeson box.  Both have advantages, both have drawbacks.