Okay, here is the deal. I realize that a lot of the people on here have far more knowledge than I do and I am hoping to benefit from all of your experience.

Here's the rundown. I have what appears to be an almost entirely stock numbers matching 66 Chevelle SS396. This winter I am planning on rebuilding the entire suspension. From reading some other posts on here, it is apparent that too much information is better than not enough so I apologize in advance for the long post.

As far as I can tell, the only work that has been done was crappy front springs and a Hurst Super Shifter installed on the Muncie (although it looks like the brainiac used a dull axe to cut the hole for the non-standard shifter. Ah well, project for another day) The other stuff was done by my father and myself. We replaced the front springs (the ones that were on there had been torched and were sagging). Since I was on a high schooler's budget, we just swapped in some springs that we had laying around. Those have to go. The only other thing we did was install the Edelbrock/Lakewood "No Hop" bars (which work extremely well)

I am aiming for a nice combination of smooth ride (it's not a daily driver but definitely gets driven regularly for 4-6 months in the summer) and performance (I live in Idaho with some nice curvy mountain roads).

Here's my plan (any $.02 you guys can add would be much appreciated. I am hoping to avoid "newbie" mistakes since this is my first suspension rebuild)

New coil springs front and back. Possibly stock big block springs up front and Cargo Coils in the back to give it a nice stance. Also may explore the custom springs from coilsprings.com

Shocks: Edelbrock IAS

Rear Suspension:
Lower rear trailing arms - Thinking about the CurrecTrac arms from Currie. They appear similar to Global West's with a spherical "johnny joint" to avoid binding but are significantly cheaper than Global West.

I am also going to install the Edelbrock frame braces to replace the spindly original stamped steel ones.

Upper rear arms: I am going to stick with the stock uppers with new rubber bushings.

Sway Bars: ADDCO, Helwig, or Hotchkis sway bars. 1 1/8 inch up front and 7/8 inch out back.

Front Suspension: I was going to re-use the stock control arms with new P-S-T polygraphite bushings and rebuild kit. And yes, I will be slathering them in copious amounts of silicone grease to hopefully avoid squeeks.

Brakes: I can’t afford a disc brake conversion yet so I was planning on using PraiseDyno’s drum brake pads. Anyone have any experience with these? I will be adding a power brake booster though.

Steering: Since the car came with no power steering and a manual gear-box, I am going to bite the bullet and get a new tilt steering column and power steering. A close-ratio steering box is also planned. I already have a brand new centerlink that I will be installing with the other suspension components from P-S-T.

I think that’s about it. I have the factory assembly manual and have read how to disassemble everything and I know to keep the shims from the control arms in the correct position when I re-assemble.

So, what do you guys think? Will this be a sweet riding, canyon carving beast? I do have some auto repair experience but most of it was rebuilding engines on the farm. Never tackled suspension before.

Any input or advice is great appreciated. Especially the “watch out for this….” type comments.

Thanks again and happy cruising!

-Curtis graemlins/beers.gif