How do I take the roll and floating feelling out of my car? I recently had my 71 Cutlass out on the blacktop road I live on and punched it. The uneveness of the road made me pucker at 85-90mph so I backed off. My '99 Grand Am doesn't have that. Any advice on these early '70s GMs?
Hi Carl, it seems like it was always a toss up between ride and handling in those days. The first and cheapest place to start is tires. A wider tread is definetely an asset, also a lower profile tire will drop the height and center of gravity giving you better handling. Second, you can consider changing springs and shocks. Now a days they have springs that perform a compromise by getting stiffer as they get loaded up. Likewise heavy duty shocks will tend to reduce the softness. There are other guys here who will undoubtable give you info on rear sway bar linkages and I'm no expert on your type of car. Ian
Check out what Global West and Hotchkis have for suspension upgrades. Just depends on how much you have to spend.
Easy way to beef it up yourself is to look at www.buickperformance.com A-body Olds should have the same suspension components as the Buick. My '71 350 Skylark is a completely different animal on the road with a few simple changes. Best part is that I was able to do all the work myself. I run 225/70-14 tires on the car. 1. Install gas shocks at all four corners. Lots of good brands out there. I used GM, manufactured by Munroe. 2. Install rear swaybar. Good used available or still available new from GM. Install boxed lower rear arms with the swaybar.Kits available to box in your existing arms. 3. Install 1.25" front swaybar. Used '76 - 81 Trans-AM is a direct bolt-on. Rally Sport Camaro '76-81 as well, it used one slightly smaller, 1-1/8". The frame brackets/bushings need to be changed for the larger bar.
steve: as a comment. my 72 gs has F41 suspension, gas shocks, hd springs. from 2002-2005, i ran 225r70x14 bfg tires on the original buick rallye rims. car was sloppy going round curves, lots of push/oversteer and a lot of side to side on the highway. as of last october, i now run 245r60x15 bfg tires on new buick rallyes and what a difference! this car corners, goes around curves like no tomorrow and no side to side motion on the highway. the car when i bought it, had 275r50x15 on trans am snowflake rims and the handling was super. but, hey, u can't run pontiac rims on a buick!
Gerry, I was actually thinking of going with a little wider tire. Looks like I'll get thru this year without them but next year I'll be shopping. 60 series should make a notable difference. I'm using original 14 X 6 Buick rally rims. Summer cruiser only. I don't push it very hard. Break something & I'll be half the Summer finding & installing parts!
steve: took me 6 months to receive the 15x7 rims (wheel vintiques) ordered thru summit racing april 2005. the tires are bfg radial t/a. after paying fed + prov tax on the rims and a set of tires from a local tire shop, i have close to $1400 spent. worth it to me. the tirs & rims fill the wheel wells much better. i sold the 14" rims & tires to a fellow in london. u guys have had a pretty rough winter out east ! i was to frederiction in 2003 to a convention sponsored by the police and that is the only trip i have made east. i intend to visit the east in the future. wifey wants to go there.
Gerry, By all means look me up should you get to New Brunswick. I'm in a different city every weekend. Oldest boy plays midget AA hockey, second boy plays Highschool basketball & is a contender for the '07 CWG fencing team. Youngest girl plays rep. basketball all around the province. Winter this year is about the mildest I've ever seen. Not much snow here in the South but the North has about 4' in the woods. Instead of the 45-60 day stretch in the sub. -35 deg. range, we've seen only a few cold snaps about a week long. No ice road across a small local bay this Winter & ice-fishing huts had to be pulled off just after New Year's. River frozen again by two weeks later. My snowblower has been out only 3 times.....it's still shiny! Early Spring means I might be able to get the car out sometime late April.
in my 66 skylark i went with tubular upper control arms($325), b body spindles(will handle better $135 machine and sandblasted)hotchkis springs($375), 1 1/4 sway bar , 1 inch rear)$210 for front and rear sway bars $20 bushings) aluminum hubs(kore3 $300 but can machine your own only need hubs if you run c5 13" brakes) but you can run factory 11" 12" rotors also. rear tubular upper and lower control arms $225. i say take you time start collecting parts now in by summer 07 you will be ready to upgrade.. gd luck.. ohh i am plannin on running 255/40/18 up front 295/40/20 rear.. i am waiting on my bfg g force tires to come in..8 years on sunday, got the car my 15 b day..
Where did you get the upper front tubular arms and the upper and lower rear arms. I'm looking for a set of front and rear and you paid a very reasonable price. Thanks Harvey
As simple as it sounds, a set of new, factory style springs and good gas shocks (KYB Gas-A-Justs or Monroe SensaTrac) will do wonders for the feel of the car. That and following George's website (buickperformance.com as posted earlier). Of course, everything else these other guys are suggesting will take it to the next level, which is cool too. I ran a simple Hotchkis spring/KYB shock setup in my old Skylark and it handled at least as well as either of the modern cars, and better than one of them, that I had at the time (1990 Honda Accord, 1998 Subaru Outback)
