Hey guys, looking to freshen up all suspension on a 72 chevelle. It has a 350 with a th350 auto tranny. I just want to replace the basics. Coil springs, shocks, and bushings. what would I need to do this type of job on the rear and front. I've never done suspension job before. looking forward to the battle. just looking for recommendations and tips to make the job easier than just trying it on my own. Also, I want to try this on the rear first. how much time should I give myself on this job if I'm doing it alone?

Originally posted by ratmriot:
Hey guys, looking to freshen up all suspension on a 72 chevelle. It has a 350 with a th350 auto tranny. I just want to replace the basics. Coil springs, shocks, and bushings. what would I need to do this type of job on the rear and front. I've never done suspension job before. looking forward to the battle. just looking for recommendations and tips to make the job easier than just trying it on my own. Also, I want to try this on the rear first. how much time should I give myself on this job if I'm doing it alone? Can't give you a time estimate, everyone has different tools, experience and works at there own pace. Figure at least a couple days since you haven't done this before. Do a search here on rear control arm bushings, lots of good tips on how to replace them. Same with springs. Both have been covered many times, you'll get a lot of good info. That's the best I can do since I haven't done the rear on my car. I did do the front, just control arms and ball joints, but I also blasted and repainted the control arms at the same time. You may want to take your control arms to a suspension shop to have the old bushings removed and new ones installed, unless you insist on doing it yourself.

What you'll definitely need is a ball joint seperator or a BFH to whack the ball joints loose. I did it with a seperator, worked great. I loosened the nuts only a few revolutions to use the help of the springs, then I used the ball joint seperator and they came loose pretty easily. CLUNK! Took me two days to do the front (new swaybar, poly bushings and shocks).

I'm still trying to get my F41 parts for the rear. I'm curious if I'll be able to replace the bushings on the axle housing myself... :(
I have read that it can be a PITA.

Olli

Bring it by my place this weekend; I'll fixer up in a few hours for a moderate fee.

You better find some friends and a few cases of beer/boxes of pizza. Your first time is going to take you at least a weekend to do a front-end overhaul. That is of course assuming you have the right tools. Make sure the kids aren't around or they will have a whole new vocabulary to take to school on Monday.