HI, I'm needing some help on a new 1972 Buick GS 455 I bought. The thing is running Low Profile tires, appears to have very little room in the wheel wells (Both front and Back), and has had aftermarket disc brake system from aero-space components, installed on the front and the back. In looking at the wheels, it would appear that they installed possibly drop down spindles on the front, because if you turn the wheels hard you are hitting the tires, and it just has a squatting look to the car in general. Very close to the ground. It shows to have replacement springs also, tubular front suspension, and the aerospace components disc brake set up all the way around. The rears do not even show to have a means of having a parking brake. No disc with drum set up or anything, just straight disc brakes. The thing I want to do is get this thing back up off the ground, so I guess more than likely I am going to need some regular stock spindles, and possibly the springs all the way around to get it back up off the ground. The bad thing is I never spoke to the person who installed this stuff, only the guy he sold it to, who by the way knows nothing. What should be the height of a stock 1972 Buick 455 GS, where can I get some stock spindles, and the needed springs, and will the tubular front suspension arms this previous owner put in, give me any issues if I go back to stock speindles ? I'm not sure if this is a unique problem, but it is new to me, so any help anyone could give me would definitely be appreciated. Thank You. Sincerely, Bill.
You will have to find someone with stock spindles and look. It will probably be obvious. Pics would help. It just may be that the wheel and tire combination has a smaller radius, which would give the same lowering effect.
Drop spindles have the spindle sticking out of the middle of the space between the ball joints. A stock spindle has the spindle sticking out much lower, almost to the lower ball joint. Stock: 2" Drop: Take a few pics and post them. We can probably ID a few things. Springs are not that difficult to swap. Odds are it is one or other and hopefully not both. Stock spindles are readily available all over the place like JEGs, Summit or CPP.
Thank You for those Pictures Greg, I appreciate it. I had some pictures I had taken previously with the wheel kicked outboard on the right hand side, and it would look to me like it is the standard, or stock spindle on there because the spindle is closer to the lower tie rod or steering link, meaning its not in the middle like the 2" drop spindles you gave a good picture of. I was having problems posting my pictures though to show you. It seemed like the Picture Loading Manager was just spinning its wheels and not doing anything like it was locked up. If it is just a matter of changing out the springs on this 1972 GS 455, What is involved in doing so ? Is that a fairly simple task to undertake ? Where is a good place to get those springs ? Thank You for any and all information you can give me on this and have given already. I appreciate it. Bill
you can go an inch or two drop with the stock spindles and lower springs with those tubular arms i went an inch lower with stock 15 inch wheels and still get a pretty good ride height. they seem to take adjustement better than the stock arms. i would say put your new wheels on and see how it looks before anything maybe justa new set of springs and alignment would do ya.
Thanks for your input. Yea, The car came with an updated suspension, with the tubular upper and lower arms, and the aero-space components disc brake set-up all the way around (with no parking brake in the back), they have 17" Vintage Works Wheels on there with the low profile tires (235/45 ZR17). You turn hard right or left you hit wheel well. I'm still having problems uploading pictures. Any tricks to getting pictures to upload ? Thanks, Bill
OK, first, to up load pictures, they need to be about 1meg in size. You will probably have to crop and/or reduce the resolution to get them small enough. Or you can host them on another public picture site and just post the links here. A few things to consider, if you are changing wheels from 17" to something else, make sure they clear the brakes before you plunk down for them. I know my Right Stuff rear disc kit will not clear factory Buick chrome wheels without a fair bit of massaging and a spacer. Once you get the wheel/tire combo you want and it works with the brakes, you can use twist in spacers to get a little temporary ride height tuned. Once you are happy with the ride height, you can get an idea what level of spring you want. I'd guess factory style springs would probably do the job. I put factory Stage 1 455 springs from ESPO in mine and I'm pretty happy with it. http://www.springsnthings.com/
Sorry I could not get back sooner Greg. I tried uploading some pics of front suspension , spindles etc., but still was unable to do so. I got the car off the ground though and did some checking and taking of some more pictures to try and see what I could find out on whether these were drop down spindles or what exactly was going on to make it look like it had a low profile. What I found out was that I believe the spindles to be stock spindles, or at least standard, as they are no situated in the middle of the spindle arm as would be the case with drop down spindles. So, what I did find out once looking deeper was that the previous owner, or two owners previous rather, the person building this GS 455 installed Eibach springs all the way around. I had part numbers on the springs so I was able to call Eibach, and they said these springs are designed to give a 1" drop, all the way around. So I have a 1" drop on all 4 sides, I have 17" rims, with at least 12" aerospace components disc brakes all the way around. And no parking brake on the rear. I called aerospace components and they say they do not have a parking brake they can sell for this particular kit that was installed, so I would have to buy another and then get cables made for the parking brake. In looking at the rear end installed in this car though, I found out it is not a Buick rear end after all. It turns out it is a GM, actually a 1967 Chevelle rear end, and according to the code on the axle tube (CI0512) it is a 3.73:1 ratio 12 bolt rear end. I'm not sure if it was shaved to use on this 1972 GS 455 but that is what they have installed on my ride. Now I need to see what I can due to get a parking brake installed on this ride, which means new smaller disc brake and parking brake cable set up, or some other route. Not sure if going smaller diameter disc brake, with the smaller 15" rims will get me the wheel clearance I was looking for in the beginning, but I now know a lot more information about what I do have installed on my ride, because the guy I bought it from knew absolutely nothing. Any thoughts on how best to attack the 1" drop springs, brake set up, missing parking brake, etc., couple with the desire to get me back to the 15" rims I desire, instead of the current 17", to help give me a little room to turn corners and not hit wheel well on the front would be greatly appreciated. It would seem like I'm going to need some more money for sure, but any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks. Bill
First, to get the one inch back, you are pretty much going to have to change springs. I don't see any way around that I would accept. You could put blocks in it temporarily but I would just bite the bullet and do springs. It takes about a day to swap all 4 springs if you have tools and a friend won't hurt for an extra pair of hands. As for rear parking brake, there are several kits that will work but few will work with the Buick 15" wheel. If you plan to go aftermarket 15" wheel, like a Cragar or aluminum wheel, they will probably work. Personally, I'm using a Right Stuff rear disc kit and it didn't fit my 15" Buick wheels and I had to have a different set of rotors and alter the mounting to the inside of the housing. It all works now but it took a little thought and not much machining. I'm using the caliper integrated parking brake though my preference would have been a rotor (small drum brake inside rotor hat) parking brake. It all depends on your wants and needs. As for the 12 bolt Chevelle rear end, you've got a part that should be of value if you decided to swap it for a Buick 10 bolts. The Buick 10 bolt is about as strong as the 12 bolt, has bolt in axles and is generally cheaper/easier to acquire. It will work fine if you decided to leave it alone. I ran a 12 bolt for 25 years without a problem. As for your pictures, they will probably have to be reduced in size to less than 1meg per picture. If you want to email them to me at my username at-sign gmail dot com, I will be able to see what you have and resize them to let other folks see as well. Might get more comments and ideas.
Thank You for the input Greg, I greatly appreciate it. I will re-size the pictures that I have and email them to you when I get a few minutes today. That would probably give you a way better idea what exactly everything is looking like and what I am up against. It has been horrible not being able to ask the guy I bought the car from any questions, since he did not build the car and knew very little about the car in general, other than, he drove it. He had it sitting at his place for probably 3-5 years before I picked it up here in San Antonio. I had lost my other GS 350 to a fire at My Friends Garage that took out 5 classic cars, one of which happened to be mine unfortunately, so when I saw this car up for sale I was happy to get it, because I was building a 455 for my other car that got burned up and was left holding an engine, and no car to put it in. Not a good place to be. At any rate, I will forward you those pictures, so if you could try and post them I would greatly appreciate it. Thank You Greg. Bill
OK, got the pictures. First thing I'd do is put some stock springs in it. From the pictures, I can tell that the control arms are way down, like it has too much weight on it. Stock springs will get it more level and probably solve your tire rubbing problem. Once you solve that, you can move on to seeing what wheels will fit and what the brakes will allow. Are you looking for factory Buick wheels or aftermarket 15" wheels? It does look like you have stock spindles, stock sway bar on the front and aftermarket control arms. The control arms should be fine once you get it raised and realigned. Just be sure to put in as much positive caster when you get it aligned.
Thanks for helping out with the pictures Greg, and of course for the information. I guess I will try and purchase some springs to get that back where it needs to be and go from there. I had originally wanted to put some 15" Centerline Convo Pros, like I had on my previous GS, but the more I started looking at the car and looking at the profile the more items I saw that alarmed me to the low profile. So I will replace the springs and go from there, see how high that gets me and what kind of clearance that extra 1" will look like. Then I guess next I would kind of be looking at a dual deal, meaning wheel and disc brake combo, and how to combat the fact that I have the 17" wheels, with what appears to be 12" diameter rotors all the way around. Once I have a grip on that, I also have to think about the rear parking brake that I am lacking. So I have some things I definitely need to address here to get where I need to be with this thing. Any one know of some good, stock springs, that can be purchased to put on this 72' GS 455 ? Thank You all for your comments, and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Bill
These guys sold me a full set of springs for my car that are working great several years later. http://www.springsnthings.com/ As for the brakes, do they work well other than the lack of a parking brake? There may be options available just by swapping the rear caliper for one with integrated parking brake. I'd have to see the rear brakes without the wheel on to have a better idea.
I should be getting the new Stock Springs in this week. I'll have to see if I can find the time to put them in now, but they should be here today or tomorrow if everything works out as planned. Bill
Be sure to take before and after pictures in the same place so that you can document the difference. I'm betting it gets you to an acceptable level of ride height without much else. Then you can make a decision on what else to tackle next.
