Been giving serious consideration to suspension upgrades on my skylark. I plan on driving it alot so I figure it would be worthwhile to make it handle well for performance as well as day to day driving. Wanted to get opinions on if this would be a good starting point. Keep in mind im trying not to go overboard. Eibach 1.3"/ 1." drop spring Bilstein Shocks Front and rear anti-sway bars Quick ratio steering box. What do you guys think? Would that set up accomplish what Im trying to do?
My 0.02, Just get the Hotchkis TVS system. That includes, their springs, sway bars, and upper and lower control arms for the rear. Then buy youself some polyurethane bushings, and new KYB GR-2 shocks. Stiffer sidewall tires help to. As long as youre not running a tire with a 60++ section width (ie: 215/70R14) or something like that you should be ok. We did this upgrade to a freind's cutlass last year, and it was able to pull a 0.8* Lateral G in a corner. On top of all this, once the suspension settles down, its actually pretty comfortable. It doesnt destroy your tail bone from being too stiff, but at the same time its not as soft as the factory pudding suspension.
Forgot to mention, he has a special alignment dialed in as well, that greatly reduced bump steer. I wouldnt worry about front control arms until you plan to get into some autocrossing. I think you will be blown away by the suspension i mentioned above. For tires, he is running 225/50R15 and 265/50R15 front/rear respectively.
First, as a headered car owner, I'm not a fan of lowering anything. As someone once said, it would take a feeler gauge to measure header to ground clearance if I dropped my car any at all. I would (and did 30 years ago) put a used 1970-81 Trans Am swaybar on the front with polyurethane bushings, get boxed rear lower control arms and a factory rear swaybar. Then, depending on your wheel choice, you can easily put a wider tire all the way around. Those are fairly inexpensive things that will be a lot of bang for the buck. I recently put a quick ratio steering box on mine. It helps but it wasn't the great improvement I had hoped. Replace everything in the stock front end that is worn and if the upper a-arm bushings are worn out, check into some tubular ones to improve the caster/camber. It makes a lot of difference if you have the rest of the suspension to make it work. Good luck
my poston headers will sometimes scrape at certain shiity parture/departure angles and also when i speed over dipps..but this is due to a worn out stock springs/shocks i'm also running a staggered wheel combo also...275-60 rear with air bags and 245-60-15 fronts so I would imagine new 1 inch drop springs and tires with real close diameter say 255 rear 245 fronts and you shouldnt have my issues
I just redid my front suspension with all new rubber bushings, Moroso drag springs, reused the stock sway bar and the car rides amazing. As far as speed bumps and railroad tracks are concerned, the faster I go over them, the more comfortable and fun it is! :3gears:Also it handles so well, you slide out of the bench seat before the car looses traction.:Brow:
It depends on how much money you want to spend. 1. Start with new bushings. I would go with Global West Del-A-Lum Bushings the poly bushing do have a tendacy to squeek IMHO. 2. Shocks would be my next upgrade. Bilsteens are good, So are Koni or KYB. 3. Springs. I would go with a little stiffer spring in the front if you don't mind a little stiffer ride. It will go along ways to reduce your overall body roll. 4. Roll Bars. I really like the Hotchkis 1 3/8 hollow in the front to reduce the weight. I also like the Parts-n-Stuff rear setup if you can swing it. If not I would be go with a larger rear in the back. 5. Quick ratio steering box. It is a good bang for the buck. I would have yours rebuilt for a couple hundred vs buying a new one. I have autocrossed with the original and it is really tough. 6. Wheels and Tires make a huge difference. I went with 17" x 8" but you can go a little wider if you want. The tire is very important. The better performance tire you buy the better it will handle. There is a trade off, If you buy a really high performance tire they are really soft so you don't get much mileage out of them and they are not the best in inclament weather. If you afford to do it you can go with two sets of tires. One for bad weather and one for good weather. 7. Front tubular A Arms that change the caster/camber of the car. If you are going this way make sure you get the springs to match. 8. I would consider drop spindles. I went with the Global West system which used a customized spindle. Again if you are going with tubular A Arms you may want to go with a spindle that matches to avoid issues. 9. I really like the Metco Motorsports rear adjustable upper control arms and sold aluminum lower control arms. 10. Bigger brakes. It doesn't make it turn better but it really brings the car to a stop a ton faster. If bigger brakes aren't your deal you can at least upgrade the pads. Mark
Here's my 2 cents!... You can order all of the Hotchkis sets ups ie. springs & control arms etc from Lighting Performance in TX for an awsome deep discounted price! better than Summit and Jeggs by a whole lot le$$! and if you email them and ask for free shipping on a large order they may give it to you or meet you half way... I spoke to Hotchkis directly about them and they said there a small operation that keeps cost low and they sell a ton of Hotchkis stuff for the last 10 yrs.. http://www.lightningforceperformance...th=406_519_578 <!-- / message --> <!-- controls -->
Only a couple suggestions to keep in mind when buying the parts, and I state these from experience. 1) Buy shocks that match the springs. Ask the manufacturer for their recommendation. If you don't do this then the benefit of changing the springs will be diminished. 2) Unless your goal is to go road course racing, full time drag racing, go with stock type rubber bushings.
Thanks for all the great info guys, keep the suggestions coming. I guess I will just start with springs and shocks. Save for a couple months, then come back with the sway bar and upper and lower rear control arms all at the same time. I don't plan on road course racing or anything, but want something that would be fun to play with in Atlanta traffic when I get over that way.:3gears:
I have all that stuff you listed great starting point if your not going to race the anymore would be a waste of cash.
Instead of spending all the money on the hotchkis items i would checl out cpp they have a great setup im putting on my 65 skylark for arounf $1600
If you want to put poly in the front no big deal. Don't think they help much but they will not bind the front end. In the rear poly bushings will bind at some point. When they do you get snap oversteer, not a good situation. I know that a lot of people use these bushing and do not experience this but that is mainly because they do not push the cars hard enought to reach this point. The solution for the rear suspension is full spherical bushings. Problem is they are expensive noisey and do not last very long on the street. There are 2 companies that build control arms with street quality spherical bushing, Edelbrock and Currie. Not cheap. Cheap compromise. Look for some 1LE Camaro rubber bushings. They are stiffer rubber bushings designed by GM for road racing. You will get a firmer connection without the potential bind.
ebay control arms big block springs used sway bars and boxed oem rears about 600 bucks in mine all together
Not going to be in the garage until next week. I think the set I have is in original package so will look then. I got them by hanging out in Ebay. found it; GM p/n 10164151
I just finished an upgrade on my '64 and noted everything I did, front and rear, in the column on sway bars a few pages back. I was extremely satisfied with the results. Take a look. As you can see, there is a lot of good info available here. Lots of experience. Don't try to make a race car out of it unless you really plan to flog the thing. Read a lot and devise a plan. It's a lot of work but the results sure are worth it and beside that it's fun too. Now i wish the weather in Minnesota would warm up so I could go flog, oops, drive mine a bit.
