Saw this on the internet, more of a custom I guess, tubular arms front and rear, 6 piston all 4 corners, coil overs up front, tri shield build aluminum ported heads. Looks to be still under construction?
Always thought about doing it to my old one but 10 -20 years ago no one was Though it was a great road car for the day
Still slowly restoring-modding my Invicta coupe... What's the 'definition' of a 'pro-touring' car, anyway?
This is John Lyons carbon fiber 68 Riviera. As much as I like my 68 his is over the top cool. Still Buick powered.
I'm in the process of building a protouring 67 Wildcat now. I'd love to know what options you guys chose for your suspensions. I'm white boarding my suspension options now.
what i found is nothing lol. the 67 is worse than a 72. you could run upper control arms in the front but you would need to make your own from like the universal parts like scandc sells. rear you could box it the arms. poly bushings. sway bars are out there. better shocks. thats about it unless you want a custom frame.
Wow! This really is as bad as it seems. Lol. I thought it was just me. I’ve heard that the impala’s of the same year shared suspensions being that they are also GM B-Bodies but unfortunately I haven’t been able to confirm it thus far in my research. Now I see why. So disappointing. Smh
in 67 they do not share frames iirc. in 71 up they do. there is ways around everything. just not bolt on stuff off the shelf stuff as are all buicks. sway bars shocks and better bushings go along way. how hardcore do you want to go? if you just want more of a restomod type car that handles good like im going for its cheaply obtainable. if you want a true track car its not cheap but you could swap in a aftermarket frame for an impala. they are same in dimensions just different set ups for buicks ride and more expense. you have to think a buick is high end not bottom of the barrel like a chevy. no offensive to a chevy but thats how gm designed them. buick was designed as the the highest end car you could get without going complete luxury only where as chevy was the car for the people just needed a point a to point b car.
now there is ways to run like the speedway race car front arms. im sure its fab work but its there. you could build a tubular setup for the rear pretty easy or box the oem units. someone with a good hand at welding could build there own units and add better geometry to the front even. rear would be even easier. im mean if you can a jeep you could a buick. if you had access to a decent shop and could pro weld you could build all kinds of crazy stuff. prob could market it even for less than the name brand guys.
My goal is similar to yours. I’m going for a more pro touring style set up. I really just want improved handing and performance out of the car. What products did you decide on going with?
One thing I do not want to do is cut the car up. Just improve handling and update the suspension. Now, I have considered an Art Morrison chassis (and the like…) but the cost hasn’t justified itself just yet.
unless you plan on track racing the car i dont see the need in that frame. right now all ive done is got a rear sway. i am going to prob just box my rear lowers throw kybs on it and new bushings all around. poly in everything but the upper rears cause i dont want a binding issue. the 72 rear is a 4 link. i think yours is the 3 link so its somewhat different. i can get tubular fronts but they are super expensive. like 1k. the rears i can get the tubular lowers for 130 bucks and i can use a body adjustable uppers i think not a 100% but idk if i want the expense. i am curious if i can use c10 arms on the front or later f body but i dont have any to compare or take measurements. if so i can go tubular up front cheap. again a 67 is differnt but idk how much seeing ive never been around anything older than a 69 enough to know and i was 4 then lol. another thing im doing is swapping the trans to a 700r4 so i have od and to 342 gears. i know it doesnt affect handeling but it will make a better road use car. my reason for the 700r4 over others is its the same length as my long shaft th350 and i already had it. so other than having to use one of the bop adapters which are under 50 bucks its direct bolt in. im guess you are a 400 being its a wildcat so you will have a little bit more work no matter you do if you swap trans. im with you on not cutting up the car especially the body. when i mentioned tubular builds i was replacing bolt on parts. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Spee...Tf29F0AyGsyMYUusxDTZUmO58upb9iCUaAk0EEALw_wcB speedway has alot of race car stuff. you may be able to take measurements of your arms and find something you could use to covert yours to a better set up. im not sure as ive not went down this road. or spc you can mix and match stuff to build what you need. they have threaded joints so you can adjust to exactly what you need. https://www.spcalignment.com/spc-performance. they dont have anything off the shelf but i think you could design something and they can help you along.
https://www.spcalignment.com/race there is the race units you can build your own thing from the selection. idk if it will work but i think you could make what you need.
im guessing some trucks run the same arms as big cars but again i feel like we are christopher columbus on this all. anything you guys find out please post.