I'm rebuilding a 70 El Camino, the car is a 350/350 with power steering, A/C, and power disc brakes. It's all stock and I just rebuilt the front suspension with new ball joints and bushings (rubber). This is my father-in-laws car, he is in his 70's and won't be racing around in it so there is no need to go for any extreame suspension upgrades but this thing handles like a boat. The steering box is loose so I'm going to upgrade from the stock 4 turn box to a 3 turn one. I also would like to upgrade the front sway bar and add a rear one. Any advice in regards to the sizes of the sway bars would be appreciated. I don't know if they need to be matched in relation to the front and rear sizes? Is bigger always better, or is too big overkill here. Thanks for any input.

Anything bigger than 1-1/8"F and 7/8"R for a cruiser w/ a SB is just overkill.

For the front, a 2nd Gen F-body (70-81 Camaro/Firebird) swaybar is a direct bolt-on, easy to find in junk-yards, and commonly had 1-1/8 and 1-1/4" sway bars. I usually scoop them up for ~$35-40 at junk yards, and under $25 at swap-meets.

For the rear, the stock F41 7/8" rear bar for a '69-72 Chevelle should still be available through GM for ~$75, and I occasionally see used ones for under $50. You will need to reinforce the rear control arms to use this type of sway-bar.

I'm running a 1-1/8" front bar on my BB Elco, and didn't know that the 2nd Gen Camaro bars are a straight bolt-on.
I'm gonna try it with a pal's 1-1/4" bar.

Has anyone ever been faced with stripped mounting holes in the frame for the front bar?
Any solutions that work w/o welding an insert?

Thanks!

Eric

I'm running a 1-1/8" front bar on my BB Elco, and didn't know that the 2nd Gen Camaro bars are a straight bolt-on.
I'm gonna try it with a pal's 1-1/4" bar.Yep, direct swap :) If your car is lowered, you may need to run shorter end links to keep it from rubbing your tie-rods though.

Has anyone ever been faced with stripped mounting holes in the frame for the front bar?
Any solutions that work w/o welding an insert?I just drilled it out a bit, and ran in the next size bigger self-tapping bolt. :thumbsup:

Has anyone ever been faced with stripped mounting holes in the frame for the front bar?
Any solutions that work w/o welding an insert?

Thanks!

Eric

That's God's way of telling you you've got too much bar and not enough spring....

That's God's way of telling you you've got too much bar and not enough spring.... :D Very true... but in my case it was just rusty threads. :angry:

A 1-1/8" & 7/8" combo with stock springs will be great for a cruiser, but a far cry from a racecar.... and bigger bars aren't the answer for making it a racecar.

My 80 T/A stripped out seveal times, I finally had to stick a LONG bolt through the frame loaded with a ton of washers to take up the slack to make it work. Weber Chevy in St. Louis told me that they tack weld the brackets up to the frame BEFORE they strip, as they know this is a common problem on the cars they raced. (this is from 1988 when I put the bars on).

I have the Rancho Challenger GT sway bars. 1.25" front, 1" rear, 900 lb/in deflection on the front, in comparisson, the HA/HO front bar is only 550 lb/in deflection (as per HO Racing directly a month or so ago). My bar is adjustable lever, so I can make it super super strong.... How strong? I can jack up one front wheel and in about 2 inches, the other comes up with it, and the rear on that side follows at about 6 inches... STIFF is an understatement. I love em!!!!

I inherited my stripped frame holes from the previous, ahem, owner, who used the Elco as a dock to tie his boat to.

There are lots of little interesting screw-ups throughout the whole car, which is how I justified tossing 80% of it in the trash and starting over with a clean sheet.

I thought the comment of God's message was great !

My plan is to fab a 1/4" plate same width as the frame and long enough to mount the swaybar to along with 3/8ths pads welded to the backside of it (then both drilled and tapped for a 5/8ths thread depth). The pads would fit into frame clearance holes and I would use this as a mounting pad for each swaybar mount. The bar would be only 1/4" lower this way.

Thanks for the input. I'll pick up the front one used and buy the rear bar and boxed control arms in kit form.