Nativefx
04-29-2014, 09:08 AM
Okay I'm fairly new here as I picked up my first project car a few months back. It's a '69 Firebird I picked up from a guy who needed to sell as he was moving and didn't have space for all his cars. He had already started the body work and replaced some typical rust areas by cutting out the small sections and replacing with new sheet metal. The car is stripped so I was able to look at the floors in the front and the trunk which are solid.
It came with a 350 motor which he told me he had fired up, so we made sure to get it running so we could check the compression to see whether I could run this while I worked on other aspects of the car first to get it on the road. Down the road I will swap the motor, but I haven't decided on a stroked 400 or an LS3 swap. Either way, I'd like to swap to a manual tranny down the road as well. Hopefully this won't be to difficult. Other things I'm thinking about are mini tubs, 4 wheel disk brakes, posi rear end which may need to be replaced if I end up doing the mini tubs.
Right now I have been reading up to get an idea on where I wanted to go with the suspension. I would really like to go with an AirRide setup but I have never driven a car with this setup so I'm trying to get some pro's vs. con's between the AirRide setup and a coilover setup. At the moment I am obviously considering Ridetech for both but am also looking at the other options for a coilover setup. I'm interested in the ride quality, dependability, difficulty of installation for AirRide and handling for aggressive driving. Is the added cost worth it for the AirRide or is it more dependent upon preference?
In the beginning this will be mainly for a street setup but I would like to possibly look at some autocross events in the future. I don't want to purchase something that I would then have to replace, which is why I am looking for input. I'd like to start putting together my order for the front/rear suspension soon. I hope to have the motor/trans out this weekend and then have the bottom and subframe media blasted to make sure I don't have any issues with areas I can't currently see. I have already decided to replace body mounts with Global West solid mounts and will also look to install subframe connectors as well, once I decide if any one is better than another.
If anyone has recommendation on the best place to order these parts as well as other parts down the road (engine/trans, posi rear, gearing, etc), and that can offer suggestions throughout my build process that would be great.
Any other input of aspects I haven't thought about would be great as well. I'm trying to search and read as much as possible to determine the path I want to follow. I'm not made of money so this will happen in stages, but I would much rather save money to get the best possible setup rather than replace something down the road.
thanks, Jake
It came with a 350 motor which he told me he had fired up, so we made sure to get it running so we could check the compression to see whether I could run this while I worked on other aspects of the car first to get it on the road. Down the road I will swap the motor, but I haven't decided on a stroked 400 or an LS3 swap. Either way, I'd like to swap to a manual tranny down the road as well. Hopefully this won't be to difficult. Other things I'm thinking about are mini tubs, 4 wheel disk brakes, posi rear end which may need to be replaced if I end up doing the mini tubs.
Right now I have been reading up to get an idea on where I wanted to go with the suspension. I would really like to go with an AirRide setup but I have never driven a car with this setup so I'm trying to get some pro's vs. con's between the AirRide setup and a coilover setup. At the moment I am obviously considering Ridetech for both but am also looking at the other options for a coilover setup. I'm interested in the ride quality, dependability, difficulty of installation for AirRide and handling for aggressive driving. Is the added cost worth it for the AirRide or is it more dependent upon preference?
In the beginning this will be mainly for a street setup but I would like to possibly look at some autocross events in the future. I don't want to purchase something that I would then have to replace, which is why I am looking for input. I'd like to start putting together my order for the front/rear suspension soon. I hope to have the motor/trans out this weekend and then have the bottom and subframe media blasted to make sure I don't have any issues with areas I can't currently see. I have already decided to replace body mounts with Global West solid mounts and will also look to install subframe connectors as well, once I decide if any one is better than another.
If anyone has recommendation on the best place to order these parts as well as other parts down the road (engine/trans, posi rear, gearing, etc), and that can offer suggestions throughout my build process that would be great.
Any other input of aspects I haven't thought about would be great as well. I'm trying to search and read as much as possible to determine the path I want to follow. I'm not made of money so this will happen in stages, but I would much rather save money to get the best possible setup rather than replace something down the road.
thanks, Jake