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Here’s my experience with Art Morrison: As you can tell by the image above, I’m not a fan of Art Morrison’s products. You can read my full story below. Word got around to Art Morrison about my ”dissapproval of AM” during the summer of 2006. Word got back to me that he would like to speak with me after reading my write-up below. That was a surprise, considering the attitude his support staff has had in the past (detailed below). So, I called and spoke directly with Art Morrison himself. A pleasant man, and he had already looked up my records and was familiar with my sale (from 7 or so years prior). He quickly admitted that the rear clip I was sold was totally inappropriate for my application, and admitted that it would indeed cause all of the issues I’m continuing to deal with. He also said that at the time, he would’ve quickly replaced it with a more appropriate rear clip. But of course, on 2 occasions, his reps told me otherwise (see more below). I also complained to Art about his sales staff and tech staff. He’d agreed that those 2 individuals were problems, and they have since found other employment. So, I spoke to him, and at least he admitted the issue. He wasn’t willing to send me a proper clip now, not that I really want to rip all that out and start over...... However, to this day I’m still having problems with that clip, and it’s going back to the shop again to be worked on (Aug ‘07). I’m now considering trashing what I have, and starting over (talk about disgusting). I’m still not going to buy from them again..... Maybe if I decide to rip it out and start over, I’ll let him send me a replacement clip that IS appropriate and give it a try. Until then, I’m an UN-satisfied customer. My original write-up follows: The rear clip itself is a high quality product and fits exceptionally well. The huge issue is that the frame rails are WAY too narrow, and that has caused me a slew of problems The frame rails are 21" wide (between). They could be 8" wider (4” on either side), and I have 18.5" wide tires. Even with 21.5" tires, there's plenty of room to make them wider. Here's the issues: 1. Extremely poor engineering, and just plain bad geometry leads to dangerous breakage. I broke the ladder bar brackets off the rear end housing. I figured it was because of my poor welding skills. So I take it to a professional welder. He welds it back for me. A few months later, after 2 trips to the track, they are broke again! Twice I was extremely lucky. Not going to happen a 3rd time. I take the whole car to a professional chassis builder, and told him I wanted it bullet proof. $3000 later, I have it. The reason for the breakage in the first place? Poor engineering. The ladder bars are actually an important piece of the engineering needed to properly support the axle tubes. They are so close together, they don’t offer any real support. The axle tubes just hang way out there without much support, hence, the breakage. I ended up with .120 chromemoly tubes TIG welded, and with additional gussets on the brackets. It shouldn’t ever break again now that we had to over-engineer the setup to make up for the deficiency of the overall design. I have a ton of hours screwing around, $3,000 additional investment, and was mighty lucky twice that I didn’t wreck the car. 2. Most annoying, the ladder bar mount are welded partially on the flat front face of the Ford 9" center section! See the pics on this page. Another 1/2" and the frame rails would be totally useless because they’d interfere with the center section, and would've been useless if I didn't have the center section centered when I had it narrowed. It was an incredible pain to get the ladder bar mounts fitted and welded. Imagine the transition slope from the center section to the axle tube. That’s where the outer bracket goes. Not to mention I have to take out the top ladder bar bracket bolts to get the center section out of the housing. I even ordered the rear clip, and specified a Ford 9" housing. One would’ve thought they’d had sense enough to make the frame rails wide enough to put the ladder bar brackets onto the axle tube where they belong. 3. Wheel tubs, they don't make them this wide to go from the frame rail to the qtr panel. I had to fab in 'extensions' onto the widest wheel tubs I could find to reach the qtr panel. Again, what a PAIN that was. Just not something that needs to be. 4. Exhaust. No room to run it to the rear of the car with the panhard bar in place. Although I could run the pipes through the wheel tubs. There's 5.25" of clearance between the tire and the inner wheel tub edge/frame rail. Again, what a pain. If the rails were wider, there'd much more room to run 3" pipes out back in between the frame rails. 5. Their shocks never did work right; one won’t even adjust, the other had a dead spot. Now, they did sit for 2-3 years before I used them so maybe they just went bad from sitting for so long. They are a generic brand anyway. So I thought I’d replace them, simple enough. Nope, they seem to have an oddball/proprietary length. Don’t buy shocks from them, get what you want in the first place. Now the fun part, and here’s what really burns me enough to put up this web page.... Of course by the time I realized these issues, it was too late to return it. But I did question one of their techs at a Super Chevy event. His response was a very arrogant and gruff "that's the way it's supposed to be". Surprised of course, I ask, "the ladder bar mount brackets *belong* on the front flat face of the center section and along the transition" again, and now irritated at my line of questioning his apparently superior products: "that's the way it's supposed to be". Are you kidding? They go on the axle tube, that’s where they belong. And that's why you can buy brackets that fit onto the axle tube! The guy was a jerk, and clearly didn't care. Both arrogant, and ignorant. Doesn’t get much worse than that. So, I called Art Morrison's phone number. Same response, albeit less arrogant. "Sir, we have to make them that wide to fit more applications". Surprised (albeit less) of course, I ask, "the ladder bar mount brackets *belong* on the front flat face of the center section" again, and same answer: "yes, that's the way it's supposed to be". RRiiiiggghhhhht. I'm not that stupid. Ergo, no more Art Morrison junk for me, and no more arrogant attitudes from them. And worse, I’ve had several people email with a similar story about their arrogance. And I will forewarn everyone I can find who will listen. If you have a similar story, feel free to email me and I’ll post it here for all the world to see. |
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Notice how narrow the rear clip is. There’s an easy 5+” between the frame rail and the tires. And notice where the latter bar brackets mount on the front face of the 3rd member!
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Biggest lessons learned; 1) Figure out how wide you want your frame rails, and make sure you get what you want/need. Get the widest frame you can fit with your tires. You can always move the ladder bars inward if you want, but you can't move them outward if you need to with a narrow setup. 2) Ask lots of questions, to lots of people. Get the opinions, figure out which ones are right, or at least best for your situation, then purchase based on that info.
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High performance manual transmissions |
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Go to previous page Return to My ‘69 Pro-Street Car page |
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