I'm a newbie at building a cornering car. My plan is to build my car to drive a lot, but also hit both the drag-strip and the road-course 5-6 times/year. This is for the '69 malibu in my sig.

Here's what I had in mind:


Chassis/Drivetrain:
Boxed Coupe Frame
95 9C1 Caprice LT1/4L60E combo
'66 olds 442 10-bolt 3.08 posi

Front:
B-body "tall" 12-inch discs
Beefed-up stock lower A-arms with Poly Bushings
Pole Position adjustable upper A-arms with Rubber bushings
*QA1 Coil-overs
1-1/8" sta-bar with poly bushings
Quick-Ratio box out of the same 9C1 that the LT1 is in.

Rear:
*SSM Lift Bars with poly bushings
*Stock upper arms
*Springs = undecided
*F-41 rear sta-bar
11" Discs

Note: It will ride on 235/60 and 255/60 BFGs on the street, but I think I'm gonna pick up some 80s Iroc or S10 "Extreme" 16s for the road-course... tire selection will be another thread smile.gif

Now for the questions:

1)Are poly bushings going to have any negative effects anywhere other than the upper rear control arms?

2)What Spring-Rate should I go with? Front/Rear?

3)Should I box the upper rear arms for stiffness? What bushings to use? Poly/Rubber or Rubber/Rubber

4)Should I continue to run SSM bars? w/ or w/o sta-bar?

Thanks

do not box upper rear arms, use poly.
use ssm with sway bar.

Derek,

A couple things I don't like-

As stated a million times before, poly bushings in the rear are BAD, not an opinion, they are bad.

Why are we going to run SSM lift bars, just for drag use? They are going to hurt SVSA which will induce brake hop on the road course, not good. You would be better off with some well built rear arms from Currie or Edlebrock, they will help with wheel hop, help with rear bind and have no neg impact on SVSA.

If you are not ready to buy today, wait a couple days. I've got something working right now that may be much better than the 12" tall spindle conversion and not cost much more.

Spring selection depends on a ton of variables, the first and most important is you say QA1 coilovers, front and rear or just front? Coil over spring rates are not the same as conventional spring rates.

Dennis, I already have the SSM bars on the car, but I may use them on my SS car instead and opt for something different on this car. What is SVSA?

I have the spindles on the 9C1 I'm parting out, and I have the 1LE rotors, but you've peaked my interest with this other swap smile.gif

I'm thinking QA1s on the front only, and some lowering springs in the rear.

I'm on a pretty tight budget, so "bang for the buck" is what I'm looking for. I'm not in a big hurry, so I can wait for good deals if necessary.

side veiw swing arm. It is the imaginary line that the upper and lower arms form looking at the car from the side. The distance from where the arms start to where they "would" intersect if they could is the SVSA measurement. The lift bars angle the upper links down toward the front to increase anti-squat, good for drag racing, bad for everything else related to automobiles in general. As SVSA is decraesed the likley hood of brake hop in braking is increased. Imagine the wheel hop you get taking off...now multiply 10 fold and apply to the brakes when you need them the most.....not fun.

I'll let you know on the front spindle deal I am looking into, here is a little teaser-all the benefits of the tall spindle geomtry in a stronger spindle with no bump steer or turning radius side affects.

Originally posted by dennis68:

I'll let you know on the front spindle deal I am looking into, here is a little teaser-all the benefits of the tall spindle geomtry in a stronger spindle with no bump steer or turning radius side affects. Please do Dennis, this is also on my list of to do.

So what does dennis68 think of the truck arm rear suspension kits?

http://www.hotrodstohell.net/catalog/catalog.htm

ohh... that truck-arm setup is cool. Too pricey for me, but if it works like they say I think it would be worth it.

I would suggest that the Truckarm suspension is likely one of the best handling 'bolt-in' packages. I know it isn't exactly bolt-in but it is completely layed out for you and the average person can do it. There are a few members here that run it. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that Denny won't have anything really bad to say about the TA, but the lack of adjustability is it's biggest downfall. (how did I do D?) That is likely why NASCAR uses it. It keeps their costs down since it is fairly simple and it keeps the adjustments and tech to a minimum. I am not real good at this stuff yet, but I would think that it has roll understeer (which is a good thing) and a fairly long SVSA (again good). I will consult my books tonight and confirm. The hot ticket for a rear suspension would be a 3-link, but that will take a fair amount of fab work and is likely more than most people are interested in.

As far as a variation of the stock 4 link quadrabind suspension I have no experience with modifying it. If you wish to go that way I would suggest that you find someone with a car that performs like you want your to and copy it. Denny is correct that poly is bad for this type of suspension due to the designed in bind in the suspension links, however there are some pretty darn fast cars running them. So that is why I suggest that you follow a proved design, or be prepared to experiment. Checkout someone like Andrewb70. His GTO is plenty fast. Also Conekiller over at Pro-touring.com again a good example. I am sure there are lots of them around if you look.

Truck-arm is not a bad system, a HUGE improvement over the OE system. RJ pretty much nailed it as far as lack of adjustability, it does have some just not for the angles I want to be able to move ie SVSA.

Geoff runs it in all his rides and has nothing but good things to say about it, here is a thought though....

You have no fab skills at all and you buy a truck-arm kit. You spend 500 for someone to weld it in (yes you do have to access to a welder and the skill to use, this is supspension) and another 2500 for the kit.

I don't know of a fab shop that couldn't put a 3-link in for less than that.

Drawback to the 3-link is obviously that to it correctly means intrusion into the passenger compartment which in the long run means special seating arrangements to keep the back seat.

How about a 4-link? Stielow has had very good success with a parellel 4-link, I don't want one but they can be made to work, again for much less than the 3K you would have invested in a truck-arm kit.

Variations of the converging link by using spherical bearings or Johnny Joints works better than stock but not as well as the other systems available. By far the cheapest way out easiest for the weekend mochanic to install.

Thanks Denny graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Since money is tight, I might run the SSMs temporarily while I work out all the other bugs, and change the rear suspension later smile.gif