Ok, so here is what I have done thus far. I have a 65 Skylark with drums, bought a front clip from a 78 camaro with disc's. I saved the spindles and steering box for the 65, bought new rotors, calipers, pads, seals and brake hoses. Now as many here know I picked the wrong damn yr for the upgrade, I should have gone with the 1st generation camaro. But I don't think I am porked as some research I have done I found the 2nd generation spindle is referred to as the tall spindle and actually was an upgrade for better handling as it changed the geometry for the suspension/steering when turning and it was found the front tire made better contact to the road under hard cornering. The spindle does offset the wheel stance by about 3/8ths of an inch outward but I still have tire/wheel clearance for that. From what I have read I will have to swap outer tie-rods for those from a G-body to compensate for that too. Now, here is my question. I already have new ball joints and the part numbers are different between the older A-body and the F-body so will my ball joints work with the F-body spindle or do I have to swap ball joints and then do the F-body ball joints fit the A-body a-arms? I chatted at my local parts supplier and I have to buy new ball joints to check myself as they wont order them to let them sit on the shelf which I cant blame them for that. Trying not to waste money on ball joints I don't need and I really don't want to get my car torn apart and have it sitting on my friends lift taking up space. Thanks
I did this conversion 15 yrs ago. You need to run the f-body lower balljoints. The taper is different. They will need to be turned down to in a lathe to fit the lower control arms though. The upper arms need replaced with tubular units otherwise you'll need over an inch of shims. you'll need f-body upper balljoints as well but they will come with the tubular upper arms. Its an ok swap, but seems to be outdated at this point.
Never did this swap but I did look into it before I went with something a bit more stock. Everything you say jives with what I remember, too.
Thanks for the info guys. So much for a simple easy swap eh, looks like I will be buying F-body upper and lower a-arms and the G-body outer tie rods. I am looking into a wheel alignment system now too. Closest shop that could do alignments was a 30 minute drive from here and the garage burned some time ago, don't see a replacement building in the near future either. Next shop after that is a 60 minute drive. So a buddy and I are going halves on a "Quicktrick" alignment system so we can align our own vehicles from here on. Thanks for the info guys.