Front Sway Bar Problems
 

Going thru suspension on my 85SE,springs shocks,struts,poly bushings throughout except upper links in rear. Installing ST swaybars front and rear and run into a problem with front swaybar contacting inner fenderwell by radiator support both sides as i'm reassembling suspension. Moving swaybar up and down in what would be close to normal ride height it's coming in contact with the body where the factory has provided clearance for the stock swaybar. The new bar is 1.25 ". Never ran into this before on previous FBs i owned-but never put a bar this size on til now. Anyone else had this issue? Insights,fixes?

Yep, common. Fix is to get a cutoff wheel in there and make enough clearance for the bar to pass smoothly. Remember that the section it touches is the uppermost compression of the bar, so you don't have to hog the whole so big that it affects the radiator supports. Just open it up enough to allow the bar to move freely when mounted.

I also had to egg out the tension rod mounts for the Racing Beat bar that I installed years ago, as the mount holes were designed for the smaller bar and wouldn't allow the RB bar ends to even go through without force. Opened those up a bit just to get the bar-end through it.

Grinding wheels work great for this kind of thing. Be sure to spray some black paint on it when you get done to avoid the potential for corrosion. Good luck,

Thanks for the quick response LongDuck,thought as much-no such thing as a"bolt on". I did run into the same problem with the tension rod mounts which was an aggravation. This is part of a resto mod and all the suspension pieces have been cleaned,glassbeaded and painted. Will have to disassemble and remove installed front end parts and swaybar and brackets to get room to do this. Had to remove oil cooler mount left side to be able to slide bar in between oil cooler lines. Taped cardboard to oilcooler and radiator and glad i did,probably would have gouged both with the bar passing it through. Thought this might be a problem when reusing oe bar mounting pieces. Not big on cutting up car to make mods,but really want this bar on to complement other pieces being installed. One step forward,two steps back,lol.