Looking for GM A-body daily driver suspension advice

[POWERPIG]

Hello everyone, I recently bought a bone stock 64 Cutlass that I want to turn into a safe, fun daily driver. I'm in NY so the car has to handle bad roads, bad drivers and heavy traffic. This is a tight budget build since I have other projects and will be done in steps. I just put 215/6515's on the front and 255/6015's on the back for now but may go big brakes down the line.
What I'm thinking is the BMR level 1 HPP011R kit for the springs, sway bars and bilstein shocks. Ebay chinese front control arms with a tall upper ball joint and moog lower. For the rear I may just box the stock arms and add good bushings. Brakes are currently drum. I may throw on the stock power disc setup that is coming off my 69 Camaro that I'm putting wilwoods on. I'm running 15X7 torq thrust d's so D52 stock discs may be the only option for now.
Another issue is the stock 4 1/4 Lock to lock power steering box. I'm keeping a stock diameter steering wheel. I have a quick ratio box also out of my 69 that I think is 3.5 Lock to lock. Would this be good or would a quicker box be better? I want it to respond quick but not be darty.
I have a 2000 SS Camaro with full bolt on suspension and C5 brakes. I'd like to get this cutlass to ride and handle as well as my 2000 did stock or better. Any advice is appreciated.

[BMR Sales]

Thanks for considering our products.

I would stay away from the Chinese A-Arms - There are no Geometry Changes made to them like ours, they weigh 4.5 lbs each heavier, Have horrible Ball Joints and have a Drop Spring Pocket ( so if you use them And our Lowering Springs you will drop about 3 inches

[WildCherry66]

Hello everyone, I recently bought a bone stock 64 Cutlass that I want to turn into a safe, fun daily driver. I'm in NY so the car has to handle bad roads, bad drivers and heavy traffic. This is a tight budget build since I have other projects and will be done in steps. I just put 215/6515's on the front and 255/6015's on the back for now but may go big brakes down the line.
What I'm thinking is the BMR level 1 HPP011R kit for the springs, sway bars and bilstein shocks. Ebay chinese front control arms with a tall upper ball joint and moog lower. For the rear I may just box the stock arms and add good bushings. Brakes are currently drum. I may throw on the stock power disc setup that is coming off my 69 Camaro that I'm putting wilwoods on. I'm running 15X7 torq thrust d's so D52 stock discs may be the only option for now.
Another issue is the stock 4 1/4 Lock to lock power steering box. I'm keeping a stock diameter steering wheel. I have a quick ratio box also out of my 69 that I think is 3.5 Lock to lock. Would this be good or would a quicker box be better? I want it to respond quick but not be darty.
I have a 2000 SS Camaro with full bolt on suspension and C5 brakes. I'd like to get this cutlass to ride and handle as well as my 2000 did stock or better. Any advice is appreciated.


Take a look at the Ridetech Street Grip kit for GM A body's. I installed in our 66 Chevelle and the ride quality and handling is great. Got it through Matt's Classic Bowties on a holiday discount. I used the kit's delrin bushings and taller ball joints in the stock arms front and rear for now. I plan to upgrade front upper control arms for the Ridetech Strong Arms that have interchangeable caster slugs in the cross shaft in the future though so I can get more positive caster out of the alignment for a better return-to-center feel (could only get about 1 deg. with factory arms and shims)

[POWERPIG]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll install the BMR level 1 HPP011R first and see how it sits. When I swap to the discs I'm going to add .50 upper ball joints and maybe tall lowers if I want the front end down a little more. What's the best streetable control arm bushing for the stock control arms?

[jetmech442]

Thanks for considering our products.

I would stay away from the Chinese A-Arms - There are no Geometry Changes made to them like ours, they weigh 4.5 lbs each heavier, Have horrible Ball Joints and have a Drop Spring Pocket ( so if you use them And our Lowering Springs you will drop about 3 inches

I'll back up BMR on their evaluation of the lower arms from Chy-Na,lol. I bought a set from speedway at the beginning of quarantine since I knew we were losing about 15% salary. They are very heavy because they use thicker wall to make up for lowest grade steel. I could get over the weight, but jumping gaps with mig welding for poor fitment is not something I wast to take on track. The ball joints are indeed terrible. You have to have a wrench to rotate them. I tried to press in my tall lower ball joints from Howe and the press was close to 20 thousandths and permanently warped the BJ. So that was 90 bucks right there for a new one. Additionally, the surface used to press the BJ's in had weld infringing on it and had to be ground down to get a flat surface to press on. I'm happy to post pics if it helps, just trying to help you avoid the same path I took. Additional, I measured those against my stock arms and there was no gains in geometry.

The rest for your build sounds good. D52's have a lot of piston area(especially compared to 6 pistons like the Aero6). I moved from the stockers that came with the CPP kit to Wilwoods initially for better bleeding, but they do look soo much nicer as well lol. I just recently moved to Z06 rotors and Aero6 calipers. Braking force does not improve with this setup, I only did it because I needed more thermal mass because I can't seem to route brake ducting without cutting into the front frame. Not gonna pretend like I don't love the look of having big brakes though. :)


The tall upper and lower BJ's are what you need to really correct the geometry. The lower gives you about 1.5'' drop but also really helps reduce to bumpsteer to acceptable levels-that had the biggest effect on street driving for me in chicago roads. If you can swing a set of adjustable uppers from SPC, then you can get modern alignment specs (and equal on both sides). This allows you to keep the stock spindle which is great for budget builds. In my opinion, this is the best setup for the front(and drives amazing), the only thing better is ATS spindles with SPC upper and lowers(but thats biiig bucks).

For the rear, I mean boxing/bushings and stuff helps. The uppers have to have good flex in the to articulate. Expect the rear to move though, like a lot. I was getting about 3/4'' side to side with poly and adjustable uppers. This is mostly fine, until you start to have fun in the corners. I ended up adding a Fays2 watts and it changed the whole car, but even a real simple panhard bar would stop the rear side to side movement and can really make a big difference in tying the front of the car to the rear. In my opinion, either a panhard or watts is needed to get the car close to your stock 2000 camaro, but thats just from my experience, others may have different feelings.
I don't want to make this too long so if theres any questions feel free to ask.

[POWERPIG]

Thanks jetmech442. Great info. I'm staying with the stock arms or possibly spc uppers only. This is going to be my mild cruising car. Hopefully it doesn't spiral out of control lol.

[Hotwire]

Find a ZQ8 (RPO code) S10 or blazer in the junkyard (SS, Xtreme, factory lowered). Has a quick ratio steering box that bolts right in, pitman arm bolts up. You might need ps hose adapters if running SBC. I did an LS conversion and the lines mated right up (assuming metric thread pitch).

I'm on a tight budget and have a decent setup although most will frown upon it:
64 4 door chevelle
Front:
Moog 6200 springs
Hellwig 1 5/16" solid sway bar
ebay lower a-arms
SPC fully adjustable upper arms w/ rubber bushings
Proforged 0.9" taller upper ball joint and 0.5" taller lower
Proforged center link/tierods/idler
stock style gas-a-just shocks
CPP 2" drop spindles
CPP billet hubs
00 Camaro calipers/rotors
ebay caliper bracket

Rear:
used BMR solid lower control arms with spherical bearings
Speedway motors adjustable uppers (poly in diff ears)
Moog 6197 rear springs (cut 1" off free standing height to drop rear)
stock style gas a just shocks
no name sway bar
ebay caliper bracket, self fabbed parking brake brackets
00 camaro calipers/rotors
1980 honda lug studs (Same knurl diameter as GM but larger 12mmx1.5 thread)

2000 Camaro SS wheels (17x9)

Next weak point is my tires, hoping to get something grippier when current set wears down.

Car rides like butter, perfect cruiser, but also goes through curves flat. I've done road courses, autocross, etc. It's a fun setup.

[jetmech442]

Find a ZQ8 (RPO code) S10 or blazer in the junkyard (SS, Xtreme, factory lowered). Has a quick ratio steering box that bolts right in, pitman arm bolts up. You might need ps hose adapters if running SBC. I did an LS conversion and the lines mated right up (assuming metric thread pitch).

I'm on a tight budget and have a decent setup although most will frown upon it:
64 4 door chevelle
Front:
Moog 6200 springs
Hellwig 1 5/16" solid sway bar
ebay lower a-arms
SPC fully adjustable upper arms w/ rubber bushings
Proforged 0.9" taller upper ball joint and 0.5" taller lower
Proforged center link/tierods/idler
stock style gas-a-just shocks
CPP 2" drop spindles
CPP billet hubs
00 Camaro calipers/rotors
ebay caliper bracket

Rear:
used BMR solid lower control arms with spherical bearings
Speedway motors adjustable uppers (poly in diff ears)
Moog 6197 rear springs (cut 1" off free standing height to drop rear)
stock style gas a just shocks
no name sway bar
ebay caliper bracket, self fabbed parking brake brackets
00 camaro calipers/rotors
1980 honda lug studs (Same knurl diameter as GM but larger 12mmx1.5 thread)

2000 Camaro SS wheels (17x9)

Next weak point is my tires, hoping to get something grippier when current set wears down.

Car rides like butter, perfect cruiser, but also goes through curves flat. I've done road courses, autocross, etc. It's a fun setup.

I'd just like to say i don't frown on that setup. :) I think we become jaded seeing all these builds that put the "PRO" in protouring you know? There is a ton of simple mods that we can do to the A bodies now that make a big difference quick, mostly because things are so janky from the factory. In fact, with the exception of Stock D52's and AFCO springsIinstead of moog), my first revision of my car was identical to yours, including the gas shocks. Took me 8 years to afford Varishock adjustables and a hellwig swaybar, and I love them for sure, but the base changes I made we're so drastic it felt like a whole new car.

[67King]

I'm on a tight budget and have a decent setup although most will frown upon it:
64 4 door chevelle

I love it, man! Except for the LCA's up front, I'm just very skeptical of cheap stuff due to a few too many Harbor Freight failures. But I had the GTO on hold for quite a while, and was into Merkur XR4Ti's (European Ford, 3-series competitor, with the 2.3 Turbo from the SVO/Turbo Coupe). That car was a complete Frankenstein assembled with junkyard parts from all kids of makes and models. I had about $1000 into it (after recovering costs of donor parts cars), and it was a 12 second car that was set up for autocrossing. So yeah, I totally love the performance on a tight budget. And the earlier square body A-Bodies are just really cool.

[BMR Sales]

was into Merkur XR4Ti's (European Ford, 3-series competitor, with the 2.3 Turbo from the SVO/Turbo Coupe).

:attn: I had one for 18 Miles - Traded it

https://i.hmjimg.com/images/2019/09/23/11813335_10207152353277620_4995470383606878659_n.j pg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2020/12/1016969291022016026496998323859440118451-1.jpg (https://postimg.cc/876GNxD9)

[67King]

:attn: I had one for 18 Miles - Traded it


A proper T5 in that thing instead of the junk T-9 it came with completely transformed the car. Can't believe that put that crappy transmission in that car. Skip Barber's track ones were all fitted with T5's, as well as some other goodies.

[pannetron]

SPC upper control arms with taller ball joints are a great start. Once you dial in more positive caster, which you should do, install a bump steer correction kit since your stock steering arms will be too high with the additional positive caster.

[67-LS1]

I have Hotchkis uppers and lowers in the front with 0.9” taller Proforged ball joints. The tall ball joints is what made the biggest difference.
If I were to do it again, I would keep stock lowers in the front and do pretty much what Hotwire did. I also would not have wasted money on rear disc brakes but that’s another story.

[UMI Tech]

UMI 4033-1 caster corrected and a tall ball joint. Made In USA.

[email protected] if you have any questions I can help with.