So After Some More Researching More Reading and MORE SAVING $$$$

Im ready to make to make my first purchase. Im looking to get the coilovers out the way first since they are the heart of my suspension set up, and im looking to work the system around them. I wanted to see what you thought of this set up. And get your advise if possible

this is the order in which i plan on gathering everything up.

1. DSE (http://www.detroitspeed.com/) front and rear coilovers.
2. Sc&c street comp stage 2 + Afx spindle
3. Spc LCA
4. Spc Adjustable UCA
5. c6 z06 front & rear brakes & calipers
6. hotchkis/metco/cpp rear & upper adjustable control arms?????

Did I Get Everything? Am I missing something?
how about some sway bars?

Ok, a list of parts... do you know why each of these parts are necessary to you?

Curries makes the best upper control arms IMO.

Since all these things work together you may want to consider a complete set up rather than pieces. If however the purpose of setting up the suspension is to experiment or just to have it look good then it may be the correct way to go.

If you want to do autocross or track days maybe it isn't a good combo.

Don't forget brake master cylinder and balance valve and some type of Posi rear end!

Ron

my number one goal is stance ( thats why i want the best coil over around town in dse) #2 nice driver, i dont plan on beating the crap out of it on a auto x course,or any street road racing, i just want to jump in the weekend take off and have a smile on my face.
reason for the spc lower control arms is because i found somebody selling them brand new with tall ball joints for $600 (working on getting them down to $500) & i know the spc lca work with the DSE coilovers, (im not sure if global west, curries, cpp, or any other lca work with those coilvers) sc&c stage 2 set + afx spindle because everybody uses them and ive heard nothing but good things about them and spindle bolts on directly to the c6 brakes
reason for the spc uppers, just because i know they fit the spc lowers with no hassle (im not particulary stuck on these please give me any advise on this)
z06 brakes, just because they look cooler then any other brakes out there IMO
metco rear uppers & lowers because im getting lowers & uppers for $375 w/bushings and they are adjustable.

if you guys have any advise at alll on how i can improve this set up please let me know im all ears, like i said i just came up with set up with simple reasons.

nothing nobody?

I installed QA1 CO's using my stock front upper and lower control arms. Just cleaned/painted and installed Poly Bushings. Using a 1-1/8" front bar / 7/8" rear bar. Rear control arms are Hotchkis lowers, was using stock rebuilt uppers, now switching to UMI adjustable uppers. Rear shocks are KYB. I can tell you, the handling is vastly improved over stock and I only run a simple combo of 225-70/15, 275-60/15 street radials. I think unless you are going to do autocross and really drive it hard on a race track, you will spend a lot of excess $$$. For brakes, only thing I would like to do is the rear disc conversion. And by far, the best upgrade you can make is the swap to the Grand Cherokee steering box (I still need to do this.) You'd be amazed at how these simple, relatively inexpensive upgrades bring the handling up to date.

Andrew,
I'm not an expert in the field and I'm certainly not a suspension Nazi like some of the hardcore guys on here, but I do love to drive our wagon and have autocrossed it once and plan to do more in the future. I think your list of upgrades looks great! Depending on what sway bar(s) you have now you should also think about upgrades. I went with the hollow 1 3/8" front bar and a GM 7/8" rear on the wagon and its seems to work great. Grn69 made note of the Cherokee box and I couldn't agree more. Although Lee is definitely the box of choice, for the wagon I upgraded from a 3 turn F-41 box to a Grand Cherokee box and the feel of the road is much improved. Simple conversion with AN lines and fittings and you are on the road. Most of the suspension mods I have done were done on a seperate chassis then put under the car all at once so I can't say what made the biggest difference, but the steering box was after two seasons of cruising and it was an obvious success. Both our wagon and our 66 project have Edelbrock upper rear control arms with Johnny Joints (sp?) which seem to be the rage right now to allow for full suspension travel without spring loading. The wagon has UMI lowers with poly bushings and the 66 has Currie's with Johnny Joints. Like others have said, it all depends on what you plan to do with your car. But, lets not forget the cool factor and the value of looking like the guys who really run their cars on track day...
Tom

IMHO coil overs are a big waste of $$$ and provide no handling benefit on these cars. If they changed the motion ratio they would make sense but none of the existing setups on the market do.

If you do the AFX spindle you probably do not want nor need the tall ball joints. The tall ball joints are a way to achieve a taller spindle using the stock spindle. The AFX spindle already incorporates the height increase.

Since you are merely looking to build a nice driver you will want to seriously consider NVH and how your parts affect that. Solid heim joints for example may look cool but transmit a LOT more road noise into the chassis. Not to mention they wear fairly quickly and then start creating noise to transmit.

In the rear the lower arms are much less important than the upper arms. Adjustable uppers can be nice if they have the right kind of ends (no heims). Edelbrock makes some decent UCAs for the rear, not the ultimate but quite workable.

Much will depend on spring rates and shocks, which is another reason to not go the coil over route. You will have a wider selection of both in a regular setup.

IMHO coil overs are a big waste of $$$ and provide no handling benefit on these cars. If they changed the motion ratio they would make sense but none of the existing setups on the market do.

They make sense (up front anyway) if all you are after is ride height adjustability and shock adjustablility - especially if you can get the setup for a couple hundred $$.

thanks for the input, ive seen and heard alot of swapping steering box on these cars to Cherokees steering box's. small problem though i dont know what a steering box is what what they do.

<<<<<<<<<<< TOTAL NEWB!!!!!!!

i always wondered why people switched to their steering box, and why particularly they Cherokee. is their a certain year i should be looking for? is one better then another? why not tahoe steering box or ecalade? why and how do they improve handling ?

Andrew,
I'm not an expert in the field and I'm certainly not a suspension Nazi like some of the hardcore guys on here, but I do love to drive our wagon and have autocrossed it once and plan to do more in the future. I think your list of upgrades looks great! Depending on what sway bar(s) you have now you should also think about upgrades. I went with the hollow 1 3/8" front bar and a GM 7/8" rear on the wagon and its seems to work great. Grn69 made note of the Cherokee box and I couldn't agree more. Although Lee is definitely the box of choice, for the wagon I upgraded from a 3 turn F-41 box to a Grand Cherokee box and the feel of the road is much improved. Simple conversion with AN lines and fittings and you are on the road. Most of the suspension mods I have done were done on a seperate chassis then put under the car all at once so I can't say what made the biggest difference, but the steering box was after two seasons of cruising and it was an obvious success. Both our wagon and our 66 project have Edelbrock upper rear control arms with Johnny Joints (sp?) which seem to be the rage right now to allow for full suspension travel without spring loading. The wagon has UMI lowers with poly bushings and the 66 has Currie's with Johnny Joints. Like others have said, it all depends on what you plan to do with your car. But, lets not forget the cool factor and the value of looking like the guys who really run their cars on track day...
Tom

i just happened to pick up some metco rear & upper adjustable control arms, do you suggest some johnny joints?

7 years ago I started my project 71 Chevelle and I spent a lot of money buying things that didnīt make a real difference to the average Chevelle owner, so I hope my experience with suspension stuff helps you in some way:

After doing the frame off resto, I kept the original front suspension, except for the Hotchkis 1" drop springs (Which never dropped anything). Rear suspension has Hotchkis 4 control arms and 1" drop springs. 4 stock shocks. Original steering box. The car stood too high at front. It handled like a boat, rolling at curves due to the positive camber at the front wheels during cornering.

I bought Global West upper control arms, turned 0.080" a couple Moog lower ball joints TRW 10277/Moog K-6145 (73-77 Chevelle, Caprice) and fitted them into my stock lower control arms, Found a couple GM tall spindles (11" rotors), and a couple of outer tie rod ends (TRW ES2033R/Moog ES2033RL for 70 Chevelle, mine were for 71). I cut half coil to the Hotchkis springs and installed the set: Now the lowered car is glued to the pavement during hard cornering. No bumping or rolling, handles like my wifeīs Renault Megane (European car), and itīs a pleasure to drive. I never imagined to drive a Chevelle this way. The most expensive parts in this swap are the upper control arms. Í havenīt installed better shocks yet, and Iīm talking about driving along mountain two-ways-only roads.

IMHO, use the remaining money to find useful parts, if you wonīt drive your Chevelle in a racing circuit.

If you see my Chevelle at www.chevelleven.com, the pictures were taken before the suspension swap. Iīll update it soon.

Good luck!

damn andrew i feel bad for not being around for a while.

damn andrew i feel bad for not being around for a while.


you where gone a lonnggggg time my friend.


does anybody know what is a realistic drop i can expect with dse rear coilvovers?

7 years ago I started my project 71 Chevelle and I spent a lot of money buying things that didnīt make a real difference to the average Chevelle owner, so I hope my experience with suspension stuff helps you in some way:

After doing the frame off resto, I kept the original front suspension, except for the Hotchkis 1" drop springs (Which never dropped anything). Rear suspension has Hotchkis 4 control arms and 1" drop springs. 4 stock shocks. Original steering box. The car stood too high at front. It handled like a boat, rolling at curves due to the positive camber at the front wheels during cornering.

I bought Global West upper control arms, turned 0.080" a couple Moog lower ball joints TRW 10277/Moog K-6145 (73-77 Chevelle, Caprice) and fitted them into my stock lower control arms, Found a couple GM tall spindles (11" rotors), and a couple of outer tie rod ends (TRW ES2033R/Moog ES2033RL for 70 Chevelle, mine were for 71). I cut half coil to the Hotchkis springs and installed the set: Now the lowered car is glued to the pavement during hard cornering. No bumping or rolling, handles like my wifeīs Renault Megane (European car), and itīs a pleasure to drive. I never imagined to drive a Chevelle this way. The most expensive parts in this swap are the upper control arms. Í havenīt installed better shocks yet, and Iīm talking about driving along mountain two-ways-only roads.

IMHO, use the remaining money to find useful parts, if you wonīt drive your Chevelle in a racing circuit.

If you see my Chevelle at www.chevelleven.com (http://www.chevelleven.com), the pictures were taken before the suspension swap. Iīll update it soon.

Good luck!

thanks for the info, i guess i trying to find that happy medium between that special stance and drivabilty, i guess im trying to find the lowest drivable point with ought chopping the car up.

anybody know how low the back end is on this car??

this is what i was able to find on the suspension
Factory Modified
Hotchkis SwayBars
2inch Drop Spindles Front
Four Corner Coilovers
Polished Stainless Steering Shaft
Wilwood 4 wheel disc brake
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll259/andrewpilson/nicechevelllllleee.jpg

thanks for the input, ive seen and heard alot of swapping steering box on these cars to Cherokees steering box's. small problem though i dont know what a steering box is what what they do.

<<<<<<<<<<< TOTAL NEWB!!!!!!!

i always wondered why people switched to their steering box, and why particularly they Cherokee. is their a certain year i should be looking for? is one better then another? why not tahoe steering box or ecalade? why and how do they improve handling ?

the steering box is mounted to the front part of our frame on the drivers side. this is where the shaft of your steering column connects on the top and pitman arm on the bottom to connect to centerlinkand tierods etc. Does your car have power steering? If so there will be two rubber hosesgoing to the steering box as well that come from you power steering pump. The rea sn for using the Cherokee box is because it will bolt up in place of the original and provide a much better feel.

thats pretty low. if it isnt on airbags and still has sufficent travel i would be a little suprised. i modified my frame and trunk floor for some more drop to get mine that low without bags. im only left with 3" of bump travel, but with 6" travel shocks, its plenty.

Tim

thats pretty low. if it isnt on airbags and still has sufficent travel i would be a little suprised. i modified my frame and trunk floor for some more drop to get mine that low without bags. im only left with 3" of bump travel, but with 6" travel shocks, its plenty.

Tim

Mind sharring the mods with us ???

:0)

thats pretty low. if it isnt on airbags and still has sufficent travel i would be a little suprised. i modified my frame and trunk floor for some more drop to get mine that low without bags. im only left with 3" of bump travel, but with 6" travel shocks, its plenty.

Tim


Mind sharring what type of mods you had to do &might u have any pics?

?

???

???


Try a PM.

Try a PM.

ill appreciate anybodys insight right about now.

You get into some serious driveline angle issues when you lower out cars too much in the rear. Also if you go too low in the front the suspension gets out of its "sweet" spot. Judging from your expectations that you listed in the first post, all you need are some dropped spring, poly bushings, and sway bars. Those three things will net you 90% of a more complete and expensive collection of parts. Back in 1991 I had that a complete HO suspension kit on my GTO. It was basically bushings, springs, shocks, and sway bars. It made a HUGE difference in the drivability of the car.

Andrew

I agree you would be amazed what a set of stiffer drop springs and SS sway bars will do for your car with all new rubber parts.

thanks for the feed back guys, i sw darren over at ride tech, seems like i can afford to go airride with my project, they have a level 1 package that i have decided to go with. thanks for the information though guys i really appreciated.

http://www.ridetech.com/products/64_72_GM_A_Body_Level_1_Package-1582-941.html

let us know how easy it is to install and how it works...........:thumbsup: