i've seen the shock tower project a bunch of years ago.  One of its uses was to allow standard headers when going to a 351 W/C.   Big blocks were now better fitable, too.

The short answer is that I didn't do it. Even though I had the damaged shock towers out of my car for a very long time...
I considered an MII swap, a McPherson swap and the 67-69 swap. I settled on either going back to original or 67-69 to keep a traditional look under hood. I was set on a 351W based stroker built in a non electronic era way.
The one thing about the swap was having to acquire steering and suspension for the later years. Not a huge obstacle but a consideration. Last year when I saw MS' mini trim of the 65 towers in his FB, I was convinced to go ahead. I did the mini trim and got them welded in and didn't look back. 
Well, now that I'm starting to look back, I'll tell you that the headers have super tight clearance. They take hours to R&R. Plugs are a bit of a pain but not as difficult as those in my SCJ 69. All things considered, I think if you aren't dead set on the '65s, I'd encourage you to go with the 67-69 swap. Even trimmed, the '65s are pretty narrow. 

Last edited by RCodePaul (12/03/2024 7:26 PM)

I considered doing it  when i converted a 65 to right hand drive. it becomes easier to use a variable ratio integrated PS box. You also don't havta pay someone to cut and weld the centerlink, the centerlink comes back with a serial number, a weld map, and xray results tied to the serial number. It's the only way to get an engineer to sign off on the conversion if you use an original centerlink.

MS wrote:

If you install 68 towers in a 65-66, you still can use 65-66 upper control arms, but you have to swap out the pivot shafts to the 67-68 version. Hole spacing is wider.

 
Awesome great info thank you. I was told the later control arms are longer. But I belive you that they are the same as side from the pivot shaft. I realize there definitely were slight changes to the lower control arms over the years.

I thought this swap sounds pretty nice since I'd gain space and also get upper control arms that mount flat to the shock towers vs 65-66 that use shims. There's not alot of shops out there that know how to align a new car let alone our first gen mustangs.  Pretty sad my 2015 Mustang didn't even get aligned right.

True74yamaha wrote:

MS wrote:

If you install 68 towers in a 65-66, you still can use 65-66 upper control arms, but you have to swap out the pivot shafts to the 67-68 version. Hole spacing is wider.

 
Awesome great info thank you. I was told the later control arms are longer. But I belive you that they are the same as side from the pivot shaft. I realize there definitely were slight changes to the lower control arms over the years.

I thought this swap sounds pretty nice since I'd gain space and also get upper control arms that mount flat to the shock towers vs 65-66 that use shims. There's not alot of shops out there that know how to align a new car let alone our first gen mustangs. Pretty sad my 2015 Mustang didn't even get aligned right.

I haven't paid to have any of my vehicles aligned for a decade.  #1, no shop around here knows the old stuff.  #2, even if they did they refuse to go by the specs I provide.  For the cost of 2-3 alignments I bought everything I need to do the job at home.  I've done everything from my WRX to my '67 to my F250.  All handle better and wear the tires more evenly than when I paid shops to do it.