G body suspension upgrade questions

[Grayel]

I've got an '83 El Camino that i'm looking to upgrade the suspension and I have lots of questions. This not going to a track car of any sorts strictly a daily driver. Just recently I bought a new set of BMR fixed rear control arms off of a local person. Being a budget build I will be upgradeing at a slow pace. Should I upgrade the rear now and leave the front stock until I have the funds? Would this affect the ride and handleing in a negative way being mismatched? When its time to upgrade the front, am I restricted to BMR or if another brand pops up locally, can I jump on those as well? Thanks

[DoABarrelRoll]

It depends on the parts. Just throwing some Non adjustable control arms on the rear isn't going to mess with anything And you aren't stuck with any one brand.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Agreed. Solid bars will help stiffen things up, these cars were intended to be light weight for better fuel economy from the factory so they're quite flimsy. Stiffer rear bars are only part of the equation to better handling, but installing them first certainly won't hurt. Where you might run into issues starting with the rear suspension is if you install a larger rear sway bar and retain the factory front bar. From my own experience as well as what I've heard and seen from others, G bodies seem to lean towards over steer and without the right front to rear suspension combination they like to slide the rear half of the car out on fast cornering. Our cars seem to like a little less rear sway bar than you might think.

More about G body rear suspension- The factory 4 link rear suspension has a tendency to bind through it's range of articulation, so the factory rubber (read soft and flexible) bushings and flimsy stamped factory trailing arms alleviate that to a small degree. BUT, soft squishy bushings and flimsy arms are the opposite of what you want to firm up your car's feel and increase handling characteristics, even in a street driven only car. Installing stiffer arms with stiffer bushings, such as Poly or Delrin (most often used in aftermarket arms), has the potential to possibly make binding worse. When installing aftermarket arms many G body guys leave the bushings in the axle ears rubber to help a bit. An even better solution is to install an arm that allows the suspension to move in a more fluid motion. For example Speedtech has "Articulink" style trailing arms for both uppers and lowers, which consists of a competition based 2 piece trailing arm design that allows the arm to twist, or "articulate", as the suspension goes through it's motion. Having the arms able to move freely keeps them from fighting each other as you go over bumps, dips, peaks, and imperfections in the road surface, whereas the binding as the car leans in a corner can throw off your geometry and blow it's handling. Some food for thought there as you plan out your complete suspension system and handling goals.

[BMR Sales]

I've got an '83 El Camino that i'm looking to upgrade the suspension and I have lots of questions. This not going to a track car of any sorts strictly a daily driver. Just recently I bought a new set of BMR fixed rear control arms off of a local person. Being a budget build I will be upgradeing at a slow pace. Should I upgrade the rear now and leave the front stock until I have the funds? Would this affect the ride and handleing in a negative way being mismatched? When its time to upgrade the front, am I restricted to BMR or if another brand pops up locally, can I jump on those as well? Thanks

You are not restricted to my products, but please steer clear of Chinese Stuff that will cause you more heartaches and will cost you more in the long run

[Josh@Ridetech]

please steer clear of Chinese Stuff that will cause you more heartaches and will cost you more in the long run

This can't be stressed enough. You'll have more time and money in them than it's worth. You have several options to choose from! Depending on what you're looking for, we have a couple kits for you to choose from as well.

http://www.ridetech.com/store/musclecars/?subcats=Y&features_hash=V283.V328

[Grayel]

Huge thank you to everyone for your advise

Ive been turning wrenches since the '70s. All of my cars have always been "street machines". I discovered this pro-touring thing a few years ago. Found this website about 6 months ago and joined it. When I saw these BMR arms for sale I backed off buying because I did not know the name. After loging on and seeing that BMR was a sponsor here, I rushed back over to buy them.


I do plan on investigating deeper and welcoming more and more advise and ideas because of how new I am in this field. What ever brands I go with i do see me sticking to sponsors on here for guidance. Thanks again.

[UMI Tech]

In expanding on Ben's rear suspension articulation information, we offer a Roto-Joint rear upper arm and also axle housing bushing. This allows that upper arm to pivot freely while not allowing motion where we don't want motion. For example, the body of the car rolls smoothly but doesn't move side to side.

I'd agree with all of the above. While one mfg is nice, if you do your research you can build a hybrid car to save money, increase performance, and so on.

Let us know if you have any questions.

ramey